It’s been one heck of a rainy year.  Virginia has always been infamous  for its humidity, but this year takes the cake, as far as I am concerned, with rainfall and moisture in the air.

Not only is this bad news for the animals (wet and humid conditions are just what parasites need to thrive) but it has made it hard for us to really delve into it being, you know, summer.

Rain every day and thunder mean no swimming, no picnicking, no lounging about out on the deck.  No leisurely evenings in the garden.

We’ve had so much rain that one day our bridge to the pasture was completely flooded over and there were rapids.  We had flash flood warnings that lasted for days and days.

We have had a few glorious days since the Solstice, but they have been just that: few.

So now, we are determined to make it feel more like something we can enjoy.  Summer has always been my least favorite season, so I’ve been doing my part to focus on all the good qualities of summer.

Like the food!

Fresh fruit pies, fresh caprese salad, corn on the cob.  Anything on the grill.  Basil pesto.

My garden is hurting from the rain (the soil never quite dries out, and everything is going yellow), so we have yet to enjoy a fresh garden tomato, but I spied some green balls out there today, so it’s not too far off!

We’ve also been enjoying the occasional fresh raspberries and wild blackberries.

The raspberries I planted last year; the wild blackberries are growing all over our property.

On rainy days I’ve been struggling to come up with fun and lazy activities to keep everyone happy.  We play Uno, Scrabble and Mad Libs.  We read easy and fun (in my case, trashy) books.  We paint with watercolors.  We do puzzles.  We eat.

But sometimes, if we are very lucky, we get days where there is no thunder.  When that happens, I get everyone into the pool.  There is no better summer activity, and it wears them out like nothing else.

We’re still hoping for summer to have a lovely second act.  In the meantime, we’re making the best of it however we can.