After months of Winter and only a couple of days that felt like Spring, we are finally having something like Summer. Spring consisted of a couple of days that were nice, sunny, not hot, not cold, plus a couple of (unconnected) weeks of intense, record breaking heat. But after another heat intense weekend at the Fourth of July, we are finally having some regular summer weather.

Our vegetable garden is starting to produce as a result of the warmer weather. We are getting a few squash and some cherry tomatoes. We have been getting lettuce, chard and kale and the heat finally pushed the broccoli to develop. It has been nice to stop buying vegetables and harvesting them instead.

The flowers in the yard are also looking especially good; most of the perennials benefited from the extra rainfall earlier this year and are showing that off. We weren’t sure the annuals would ever develop, but this heat has helped them along as well.

This past weekend we were invited to a birthday gathering in Loomis. We took Cookie and headed out on Saturday morning. It was one of the hot days - I believe it was 106 in Loomis at the hottest part of the day. We drove through the middle of the day, not intentionally, but because of technical difficulties with Cookie at the outset. We drove through Lake County, which looks good with the lake full, and over the hill to Williams. We stopped in Lucerne at the Foster’s Freeze for a soft-serve ice cream, then in Williams at Roberta’s Tacqueria (a place I’m sure many of you know) for tacos. We arrived at our destination at about 3:00 PM.

I have never been to Loomis and we drove a bit through the downtown which appeared to be quite cute, then out towards our friends’. It is rural suburban - large lots of an acre or more, some with horses, most with nice houses. The property we arrived at was about an acre, with beautiful landscaping and two homes. The story is that is was an acre of blackberries when our friend bought it and she slowly worked her way from the house to the rear, clearing, planting and eventually building the second home as a rental. It was lovely and shady and full of friends of hers from a lifetime.

We spent most of our time in the pool; the heat was more than we were used to for certain, especially as it only “cooled” to the 90’s after dark. Besides the pool and the people, there was a food truck for dinner and a band after that to enjoy. Overall, it was a lovely evening and a nice way to celebrate our friend.

We spent Sunday morning with much of the same group, enjoying breakfast before heading home and back to the blessedly cooler summer weather. The drive home was uneventful, with a stop for lunch at In-N-Out (if I’m going to eat fast food, this is it) and gas at Costco; then we decided to take the scenic route home and drove through the Capay Valley, which was a treat. Not as pretty as when the tress are in bloom, but still a pretty drive.

Feeling like Summer, finally