Sweet summer afternoon

What a beautiful day! It's still cool outside, but the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and I am off work. There are so many things I want to do this afternoon that I'm having trouble decided what to do first!

 I'm reading a good book (The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley), working on a knitting project that I'm anxious to finish (a baby blanket for a friend that's due to give birth in about two weeks), and I need to clean up our back patio and give Ginger a bath in anticipation of the girls' night I have planned for my friends this coming weekend. I also need to go to one of the local u-pick farms and get a couple of baskets of fresh strawberries, since I will be making my special strawberry daiquiris for the party. They are my signature drink in the summertime! Fresh strawberries, frozen, go in the blender along with fresh-squeezed lemon juice, superfine sugar, rum, and sparkling water. The fresh strawberries are the key to making the drinks over the top!  Actually, it may be better to wait until the day before the party to pick and freeze the berries, since I will need some left unfrozen for garnishing, and they won't last all week. So berry picking might be one task I put off until Friday (my next day off).

Today is so lovely, I don't even mind that I need to spend part of it cleaning out back and giving Ginger a bath. As long as I'm outside, nothing can spoil my good mood! Everything is so green, and jasmine and roses are blooming in yards all around the neighborhood (it smells like heaven), and the birds are singing and flying back and forth to the feeders and birdbath. It's a pleasure to do chores out there this time of year! And when I finish with the necessary stuff, I'll resume my book and/or knitting from a shady spot in the hammock. What a sweet afternoon it's going to be!

I have a soft spot for roses.