Mid-summer musings

“Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” - Dame Edith Wharton

Did you know there is a difference between astronomical summer, solar summer, and meteorological summer? I myself was "today years old" when I discovered all three definitions of summer.

Astronomical summer changes from year to year because of earth's elliptical orbit. This year it's June 21st through September 21st.

Solar summer is the 3-month period of May, June, and July ~ the dates that the northern hemisphere receives the most sunlight.

Meteorological summer always begins on June 1st and ends on August 31st, part of a system of grouping the year into tidy three-month blocks for weather reporting.

And let's not forget the "dog days of summer" which we are also in the throes of!

As a former 5th grade science teacher and someone whose birthday is right at the autumnal equinox, astronomical summer is what I've been most familiar with.

But if I had to choose only one of these to consider as summer, it would be meteorological summer because it most closely matches the summer school holiday when I was young.

And usually by mid-July I truly feel like summer is halfway over. Do you?

As you know, around here we are being intentional about savoring the season. And this past holiday weekend was no exception with another "staycation" in the cards for us!

This is what some of last week looked like:

The holiday weekend was bookended by a birthday dinner for my dear dad (I won't disclose his age, but it begins with an 8 and ends with a 5) and a day trip to the coast. In the middle, we celebrated a very lovely low-key July 4th with friends here in Thomasville.

Dad was celebrated at St. James Restaurant, which offers an extensive selection of oysters. It's almost like a wine menu!

We chose oysters that represent two places my parents have lived: Washington State and Virginia (And we've lived in a lot more places! Check out this Instagram post for a tiny explanation.)

We also got Skipper Sweets from just down the road in Panacea, Florida. (You might remember them from when we hosted Oysters in the Afternoon at our home.)

And right near Panacea is where we capped off the weekend! A lovely drive down country roads took us to a secluded beach (pictured at the top) just 1.5 hours from home.

Several hours of sitting in the shade, listening to the waves and watching the seabirds was just what the doctor ordered and a perfect way to close out a mid-summer weekend.

I hope your summer is delightful so far. And I hope you choose to spend some of it in Thomasville. We'd love to see you in the shop!

In the meantime you can check out some of our summer Friday Favorites below. Click on each image for more info - and don't forget that we ship anywhere in the US!

xo,