American Summertime Fun

Romance.  Three girls (two on the left new brides) looking up at their fellows (two on the right new grooms).


Baseball!  An American summer is not complete without at least one baseball game.  Check out this machismo mascot: the Richmond Flying Squirrels.  Having not been to a baseball game in ages, I was delighted to find that the vendors still walk bu, calling out their offerings of Peanuts and Cracker Jacks, echoing the age old song my mother sang to us many moons ago as children: "Take me out to the ballgame..."






 Leisurely reading.  [If you use a Kindle, check out the "Extra! Extra!" post for a special running July 14 through July 21st.  You know how those work... starting price quite low with incremental increases ending with list price...which is still very reasonable...especially considering the worlds these books will take you into.  If you love the palpable pleasure of a paperback, both books are available on Amazon.]




Chris Knight at a sweet little venue in Richmond.  I cannot find the name of the fellow who plays with him, but he is ridiculously talented.


 If you are a Chris Knight fan, you will welcome two photos.  A couple years back a friend of mine lined up after a show at Folk Alley outside of Houston to talk with Chris Knight.  He texted me that he had no idea what a "chick magnet" Chris Knight was.  I responded, "Of course, with his lonesome plaintive love songs" which, when he told Chris Knight that I said that, warranted a photo back to me of the singer/songwriter and my friend.  It's those little things that bring smiles on long, lonely nights looking into the fireplace, wondering if winter will ever end.


Arrived early at a hospital for medical testing in Midlothian, Virginia after driving through the night to get there and truly wanting a cup of coffee, not from a machine as the downstairs receptionist suggested.  Another woman suggested this nearby coffee shop, which despite the name of Carytown Coffee, is not in Carytown (a section of Richmond), but out in the suburbs of Midlothian doing a booming business on a weekday morning.


This was understandable as it has a pleasant ambling ambience - a place you could while away a couple hours comfortably reading or catching up with friends.


Aimee and her Little Cheerful again!  Aimee and Andrew throw a stellar weekend party every summer, with live music and lots of fun.  This girl has really ratcheted living up a notch.  When I first moved out to these remote mountains, several people told me that I should meet Aimee, that we would be friends.  I was in recluse mode then, trying to pick up the splintered pieces following a tragedy and preferred to gather myself together alone.  Still, one day I was backing out of a parking lot and saw a girl in the rear view mirror who looked exactly like me fifteen years prior.  It was Aimee.  I was struck by the poetry of the vision: the past in my rearview mirror and a girl who shared my name.  I am honored to be her old friend now.



 Georgia!  I am sure she could juggle while hula hooping if she felt like it.


Yep!  Nothing like an exploding watermelon!  So you wrap up the center with rubber bands, wondering which one will be the last one before it explodes...



This little guy was my dance partner for close to two hours.  Amazing stuff.  Couldn't have asked for a better dancer or a more congenial fellow.


Life is..... (a bowlful of cherries).  This year I beat the birds to my cherry tree.


 How graceful is garlic?



Another summer storm brewing off the front porch.  I could almost touch this cloud.




Festivals are getting better.  At least the smaller ones. Cleaner.  Better food.  And yes, restrictions on chairs.  Music is for dancing!  If you need to sit, then relax farther back and let the festive people dance.  Producers are finally calling a halt to the encroachment of the couch potatoes and cordoning them off (though many still ignore this, making it very embarrassing and uncomfortable to those who don't want them there, but don't want conflict) so there is ample room for dancing.


Aimee and Andrew and The Little Cheerful at a festival.  Aimee is in her glory with rock stars drinking out of her coffee cups.  Always good to see their smiling faces.  And Aimee serves up her own culinary delights to the musicians.


Natural Chimneys: a lovely venue.


Favorite festival pic so... closing this contemplating romance again.