Ah, summer..Heat, Bugs and..Memories..

I know it's hot, but I love summer. I always have.

A lot of my best memories are tied into summertime events. Growing up, it meant being allowed to stay up later. It meant gardening with Gramma (GG). It meant trips to Mexico Beach to the family beach cottage. It meant ice cream. It meant no school!

This year is my first summer without GG. Roughly 15 years ago, we planted some blueberry bushes together in an area between our homes. We never had a dividing line really, because we just picked and shared with each other. If I was working, she picked them. If she was busy with other things, I picked them. We just shared the bounty. We liked it that way.

I've picked blueberries several times this past week, and I can't help but remember some of those berry-picjing times we had together. I like to get out there pretty early before it gets too hot.

Today I thought back to one time when, while I was still just a kid, I asked her if picking the blueberries "hurt" the bushes.

"No, baby," GG replied, "it lets them know you're interested in the berries."

Another memory was brought to mind when I saw the old family beach cottage for sale in a coastal real estate magazine..for a staggering $575,000! The beach house was built by Grandaddy Sterling Harrison with some help from the family back about 1970. Grandaddy bought us grandkids small round Panasonic AM radios for helping..they were called Panapet 70s. I still have mine, and it still works!! (Of course, I used mine to listen to country music on WJOE out of Port St. Joe, Fla.)

I still love lots of things about summer. Jumping in the small, but refreshing, inflatable above-ground pool; reading and/or writing in the swing; going barefoot for days at a time; making ice cream (although we no longer have to hand-crank it!) and of course..berry picking!

Hey, have a great summer!