Friday Five: What I Really, Really Like...About Summer(Winter)

We have members all over the globe, so while I stepped out this morning and thought, "oh, my, Summer's really here and it's just the end of June...ugh...hot, hot, hot" - 




some of our folks are deep into Winter and thinking the same thing.  Except about cold/rainy/whatever it is weather.


So, for a better attitude (for me anyway) and maybe a boost for you too...


What are five things that you REALLY REALLY REALLY like about the current season where you live?  


and, for a bonus:


Something you are looking forward to about another season?

1.   Shorts and Sandals:  I do prefer to wear sandals and shorts and t shirts year round.  And I can almost do that here in Texas.  But I do not like the heat.  I know, I know.  I knew what I was getting into when I moved back to Texas 2 years ago.  But no one in their right mind would prefer 100 F heat with little or no rain for 3 months.  But it beats snow on Mother's Day!

2. Summer Veggies:   I love the produce that you can buy in the summer.  Summer squash, ripe (really red) tomatoes that don't look like pink tennis balls.  I love the leafy veggies and green beans.

3.  BBQ:  Summer is Bar B Que time in TX.  This isn't mere cook outs with hot dogs on the 'barbie.'  No, this is seriously smoked meat done over coals and either rubbed or mopped with deliciousness.  And I love to BBQ!

4.  Indoor activities:  Late summer is "indoor" season here.  I would cook if out in the sun, so like snowy days in upstate NY, August is time to make some 'sun tea', add a bunch of ice, and curl up with a good book in the air-conditioning.

5.  Iced Tea:  When I lived 'up North' I would drink iced tea in the summer time.  But here I get to drink iced tea year round.  I do not drink it 'southern style' with mounds of sugar and lemon.  But iced tea is the best thirst quencher invented.  You can have all those energy drinks.  A glass of plain, glass sweatin', iced teas is the best!

Bonus:  Texas' best season is Spring.  It is usually quite long.  The rains produce the Blue Bonnets and Indian paint brush and clover which spread across the rolling plains of our area.  But Spring also bring FLIES! And while they generally are not biting flies, they are maddening.  

The season I long for is a Yankee Autumn.  I miss the upstate crispness of the frost, the turning of the leaves, the smell of wood smoke and a quietness of a trout stream during an early morning hatch.