The Best Laid Plans

Do you have moments that just inspire you? Yesterday Doug and I went on a long bike ride through the country. There was a field near my house where they were cutting down the long grass and making bales of hay. Something about the sweet smell of fresh hay and the bales sitting out in the field inspired me to write a nice post about summer and all the things about it I love. So I started composing a bit of a post in my head yesterday. Usually my blogging is random and very little preparation goes into it, so I felt like SuperBlogger acutally planning a post out ahead of time. Fast forward to this afternoon. This post wasn't going to be complete without a picture of the bale-laiden field that inspired the whole thing to begin with. The field is about 2 miles from my house, but I figured the short drive in the opposite direction was worth it for the picture. I arrived to find...no bales. I guess they picked them up. Those farmers are too efficient! I remembered another field a few more miles down the road where they had been cutting the grass down and were about to make bales. I thought maybe it was worth the short (now becoming a long) trip on the off chance that there would be a field full of bales to show you. Nope. So now you get a shorter post about summer and my failed attempts to bring you a pretty picture. So, indulge me and imagine an artistic shot of a hilly field with randomly placed bales of hay with the sun setting in the background. Got it? Ok....

Some other things I like about summer (other than sweet-smelling bales of hay):

Ok, I know that technically these are considered weeds, but do you remember how much fun it was to see if you could blow all the fluff off in one breath when you were a kid? I still can't do it all at once...it takes at least two tries.

I have three of these in front of my house. Doug thinks they look a little tacky, but I think they look whimical. I love the bright colors and the way the wind makes them spin. We agreed that the pinwheels could stay as long as they were joined by any pink flamingos or cardboard figures of a large lady's rear end. (Although I secretly think that pink flamingos in the yard would be tacky to the point of being super-cool.)

One great lazy-day activity? Hitting golf balls into the woods behind my house. Don't worry no one lives close enough to get hurt, besides I don't hit them very far and they sometimes end up like this one lodged in a tree. Every few times we do it we go hunting in the woods for the balls to do it again. Great fun!

There are so many other things that I love about summer, way too many to list here. What are your favorite things about summer? Have a good weekend! I'll be off doing another of my favorite summer Saturday activities....yard sale-ing!