Like most people summer is a joyous time for me. A time of relaxation and the freedom to enjoy the bounty of the season. As a child growing up in Texas, the summers were hot and the pool was the best place to play and cool off. I would take off on my bike with friends to explore creek beds and woods, even construction sites. Weekends and vacations were spent on Lake Texhoma, boating and swimming and camping with my family. I close my eyes and still visualize long lazy hot days when the tar on our street would bubble, and we popped the bubbles with our bare toes. I never wore shoes in the summertime unless my mother made me or we were going to church. I don't wear shoes in the summertime even now unless I have to.

When my children were growing up, we built a house in the country south of Fort Worth on five wooded acres. We put in a pool and that became the center of family life in the summer. Races and exhausting games of Marco Polo and cookouts were the norm. Each year we would rent a house or a condo on the beach in Galveston or Corpus Christie and be beach bums for a week. Those weeks were filled with sand castles, swimming, long walks on the beach, dolphin sightings, sand crab hunts after dark, and delicious fresh shrimp and seafood. So many memories in the summer surf.

This year we are taking our grandsons to the beach. We have rented a house close to where lots of boats come in and out and there will even be some boat races. The boys have never been to the beach. The panhandle of Texas is a long way from a beach. They are excited as is their mother. Our daughter has so many great summer beach memories she wants to share them with her sons in special way. She is passing on that joy of discovery and love of the season that we passed on to her and her brother.

My passion now is not swimming or boating, but gardening. Besides my grandsons coming over to play, my joy comes from what grows in my garden. Only in the summer can I grow, harvest, and make salsa with only the freshest ingredients from my garden. The taste of summer for me is cucumber and tomato salad. Even spaghetti sauce is better in summer because I use fresh rosemary, thyme, and basil from the garden. My grandsons love to help me pull onions, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers to make a big salad to go with dinner. They are coming over tomorrow to help plant the onion slips, lettuce, and cucumbers. We'll plant herbs and flowers as well.

Early mornings I sit in the cool shade and sip coffee and read and enjoy the sights and smells of summer in my garden. The water trickles lightly in the fountain my husband made. There is the twittering of birds and the faint hum of bees around the honeysuckle. Butterflies flutter from fennel to flower in the butterfly garden, and the lilies and lavender, roses and daisies bloom in all their glory and scent the air. There is really nowhere I would rather be.

I enjoy the freedom to spend my time on the things that are important to me, like gardening, and share the fruits of my labors and my loves with my family. I enjoy summer.

Learn more about this author, Brenda Obert.
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