Summer

It's the last week of summer.

True, there is still more of summer-like weather and school does not start for Adelaide until the day after Labor Day, but for me this feels like the last week. We had an unusual summer because we have been away for just about all of it. We spent the first 6 weeks in Lake Placid, living in three different houses, then two weeks at our cottage on Lake Michigan (Adelaide spent one of those with her Dad in Cape Cod), and then one final week--this one--back in Lake Placid.

We've been away for 9 full weeks! And then on Sunday we head back to a place that had barely begun to feel like home--Granby, Connecticut, where we will gear up for Adelaide's final year of high school.

I've never been on the road for so long before and I have to say--it's been great! Even though I have been working throughout, and Adelaide even more so--skating and working out for 5 or 6 hours every day that we were in LP--it has really felt like Summer, with a capital S!

True, I have pretty much had it with packing, stuffing the car to the brim, unpacking, and packing up again. But we have been privileged to be in beautiful places, surrounded by nature. No, I never made it to the ocean this summer, but I have lived right on other water for most of the time. My spirit has been soothed by its sounds. I've played in and on the water and hiked in the woods.

Adelaide has made several leaps up in her skating ability and that has been so exciting to watch. She had a late start in the skating life, but through incredibly hard work she has managed to pretty much skate as though she has been doing it since she was 5. She is ready to find a partner and compete for real!

Yesterday I made one last trip to the Lake Placid Wednesday farmer's market and picked up fresh vegetables and local cheese and meat. Going to the farmer's market really feels like summer. Tonight I will make sauteed greens, Portuguese-style, and savor the taste of a great summer.