Friday Five: Summertime

This week's five from the RevGalBlogPals:


1.Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)
Ah, where to start...asparagus; strawberries; raspberries; sweet corn; summer squash and zucchini; fresh, non-store-bought tomatoes; anything grilled over charcoal. Iced tea; Grand Traverse Select semi-dry Reisling, a very light and almost effervescent regional wine that goes really well with grilled chicken and other lighter summer foods.

2. Song that "says" summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)
Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" -- but only if I'm in the car with the windows open and the radio really loud.

3. A childhood summer memory.
I was just reminiscing about this the other day. In the summertime, after long days spent haying, canning or engaged in other summer activities, my mom, dad and I would sit behind our farmhouse -- years before my grandfather had salvaged an old church pew from somewhere, painted it and placed it against the south wall -- and watch the sun go down. There in the twilight you could listen to killdeer, bobwhite and jacksnipe...smell clover and curing hay...watch the changing colors of the evening...see flittering bats overhead...feel the dark slowly envelope the farm. It was one of our few family bonding moments.

4. An adult summer memory.
I have amassed so many delightful recent summer memories...it's hard to pick one. Driving around the coast of Lake Superior last year and eating a pasty in Paradise was a great memory, as was hanging out in the wonderful little Upper Peninsula village of Hessel. It wasn't quite summer yet, as I recall, but Fellow Traveler and I also had a great time driving around the Sleeping Bear Dunes last year. This year some of our pleasantest times have been right out on my front porch, sitting in our stadium chairs and "chilling." Let's see...back in my solo days, one memorable Saturday afternoon was spent in Benzonia, Michigan, in what used to be its cheerfully bohemian natural-foods restaurant, drinking cherry cider and quietly grooving to Van Morrison's "Moondance" while watching the parade of Interesting People that such venues tend to draw.

5. Describe a wonderful summer day you'd like to have in the near future. (weather, location, activities)
In two weeks I am going to be 1)doing the Ann Arbor culture crawl; 2)going to a Tigers game; and 3)going back up to the Leelanau Peninsula. I hope that all these days will be wonderful in their own ways.

Optional: Does your place of worship do anything differently in the summer? (Fewer services, casual dress, etc.)
Well, about a third of our congregation disappears, for various reasons, between Memorial Day and Labor Day; so our already low formality quotient ratchets down several more notches. It's actually a great time to assist or lay-preach.