What this summer felt like
Labor Day sneaked up on us.
We fell asleep last night with the windows open, and this morning, there was a chill in the house. I know I’m not supposed to say it, but I think something is changing.
When I think about this summer, these are the pictures I want to think about. They’re what this summer felt like.
I’ve taken a lot of ferry rides.
I’ve eaten a lot of melon. I’ve eaten a lot of strawberries.
I’ve eaten fried chicken and lemon icebox cake and zucchini. I’ve been eaten by a lot of mosquitos.
I’m ready.
Happy Labor Day.
posted by Molly at 5:04 PM
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96 Comments:
Charming! :)
Lovely pictures to commemorate summer... finally going to try your Pimms recipe this weekend (to to a little summer-commemorating-fall-welcoming ourselves!). :)
lemon icebox cake sounds perfect!
Wow, your photo essay really blows me away. Perfect!
Happy Labor Day! Gorgeous, gorgeous pictures!
Nisrine
I love your sunny, warm pictures of summer. I'm sure you'll love the lazy romance of fall too, you just don't know it yet until you're in it! Can't wait for your depiction of the next season, and the next. Love your work on this blog!
I just made the Cider-Glazed Salmon...could not stop "uumming to myself as I ate... this may be the best salmon I ever ate.
I paired it with Siberian White Kale from the farmers market, sauted in olive oil and garlic then braised in chicken broth then topped with apple cider vinegar...WOW
....I then placed my cider stained copy of Homemade Life, next to the bed so I can savor the next few chapters. Thank you for such a wonderful book!
Your photos make me miss the ferry rides. I miss Seattle.
It's been 90+ for days, but now it's 59 degrees.
Yesterday the corn was more starchy than it was sweet.
Some of the leaves are starting to change color.
So I agree - something's up
I have been feeling the fall chill seeping in at nights too but it is okay as it has been a splendid summer. Now...onto soups, stews, curries and warm nights in with loved ones!
happy labor day to you ! here's to a great "fall" and beyond....
Love your summer images. You have a beautiful way of capturing each moment. Truly.
I'm glad to read that you ate a lot of strawberries. It reminds me of my favorite article that you wrote for Bon Appetit, maybe 2 summers ago. You had been berry picking, and learned to make jam. I was always afraid of jarring, between the many steps and potential for botulism or something! But thank goodness you steered me in the direction of "I can do this. People have been making and storing food this way for generations!"
Since then, I have been making my own peach jam. We call it JennyJam. I wouldn't call myself a huge jam-eater, but the scant 4 jars that the first batch made was shockingly too little. I immediately made 8 more. 12 jars seemed like a years-worth for sure. It was all gone by Christmas. Last year, I upped the production to 20, which was enough for the three in my house plus the few friends I would call Jam-worthy (think of Seinfeld's Elaine and her sponge-worthy boyfriends.)
Thanks for the inspiration!!
Jen in New Rochelle
Haha.. Beautiful!
Happy Labor Day to you too!
Happy Labor Day Molly - It is lovely to think about what summer felt like. Yours looks heavenly.
It has been beautiful! Here's to a new kind of beauty in the fall.
Very nice pictures!
I live in the Southern hemisphere (NZ to be precise) so spring is just around the corner
Have a good Labor Day
love this. i do, however, always welcome fall in the northwest!
Here in Chicago, it feels as though someone flipped a switch, and whoosh!-it's fall. I know it's just a preview, but I'm ready, too. Picked up Jim Thorne's book after your toast post. I do love toast. Crostini. Crisps. All of it. Everything is better on toast.
I felt that change for the very first time last night, Molly. I went on a run and was nearing the corner coming home around 7:45 when I noticed the light was different than usual and it was starting to get dark. Love your photos. They certainly do show summer, as short as it seemed to me this year.
Wow Molly, I just read your lovely post, and no comments had been posted yet. I expect there to be well over 100 in the morning, as is the norm. I live in Port Angeles, just a couple hours from you. I'm curious if you've visited this area. I hope to make the trip over again and eat pizza at Delancey. Happy long weekend!
gday molly..what a cozy and almost chilly night in seattle..have been loving your stories and photos for a good while now..they make me smile and inspire me always...cheers
This is beautiful, all of your posts make me feel warm inside. This was a wonderful summer full of little moments that together, made this season special. Your blog inspires me everyday.
Have never commented before but love your blog--and book! Lemon icebox cake sounds amazing. Is there a recipe?!
Summer was lovely :)
I really love the pictures they really capture summer. I can't wait for Fall it is my favorite.
Have a happy labor day
I think the sign of a Summer well spent must be feeling welcoming towards Autumn. It's arriving here too.
what IS lemon icebox cake? it sounds amazing. i love anything lemony.
I love the sailing boat photo. We've had beautiful weather for our first week back in Edinburgh but there is a chill in the air this morning and I've been looking out for ripe blackberries all week, I'm actually quite looking forward to Autumn now. Happy labor day! Gx
Molly, your simple posts always move me. I had a lot of mosquitoes nibble on me too this summer. But I loved it so and don't want to give it up yet.
That fall wind has already started to blow. In a week, it'll send me back to the West Coast.
My feeling of summer was vanished when one day suddenly, without any notice, the thermometer went from 28C to 17C.
If we ever can call it summer, this season lasted only one month and a half. But it was enough for me too.
I'm ready to receive autumn with my arms wide open. Who knows tomorrow...
Simply great. Lemon icebox cake....I'm intrigued. I seem to recall my grandma making one when I was a child. Now I'll have to go hunting for the recipe. Or perhaps you'd like to write about yours?!
Happy holiday weekend!
Lovely pictures, Molly! Have a great Labor Day.
There are always Cafe Lago's roasted tomatoes to keep that summer feeling going! I just made my first batch last night, using canned tomatoes, and holy moly! They were amazing. I'm kicking myself for making a half batch instead of a full one!
And yes, lemon icebox cake? Please?
A sign that summer is at an end here in England is when the children return to school at the beginning of September after a 6 week break - its time to dig out the winter uniform & get back to school runs & after school activities
For me, this summer was so long, in a good way. I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to let go, but there is definitely the feeling of a new season in the air.
Looking back on summer is always a satisfying-yet-wistful feeling for me.
We're having a short and very late summer down here, so I'm taking advantage and eating tomatoes, plums, eggplant, and melon while I can.
I sometimes miss the East Coast, but even down here I love the cooling weather of early fall.
How lovely!
The way summer is meant to be remembered. The fact that it doesn't last all year is what makes it worthwhile each time ;)
I love how your photographs carry a feeling with them.
There's a subtle shift in the air. Makes me think of new pencils and apples, though I could do with a few more days of summer & sun.
Indeed. All of it. Maybe the mosquitoes, most especially.
love your photo's. can it be summer again?
I love it! If I took a picture of today, the sky would be so blue, it looks like a sapphire. After a brutal Atlanta summer, fall appears to have crept in this weekend, just in time for a day off to enjoy it. It's 79 degrees and the pool was actually chilly. I think I mostly ate ice cream that I made this summer. At least, that's what it feels like. I also made the awesome oatmeal bread you recommended. I'm ready for fall. So ready.
love your contentedness;
im ready for scarves and lattes and to switch from summer squash (no more zuchinni, please!) to the roasting kinds.
i'd found your blog a year or two ago when looking for a recipe. now i find myself happily buried in your book as my book club read and just make the connection. so cool! and how fun and that you have a restaurant so nearby, my friends and i are eager to come raise a glass in honor of how much your book touched us. what a treat to be able to eat your food after reading your book.
love this post too btw. feeling summer leave is always bittersweet for me.
It's just starting to warm up here in Sydney - your photos are making me wish it would come much sooner!
Oh your photo of strawberries makes me miss them already... you can't match summer for it's fruit. Sigh.
If you want a delicious melon and strawberry salad, try crushing a clove of garlic and throwing it in, along with a little olive oil and salt. It is delicious, even if it sounds funky.
Happy Labor day!
http://foodienextdoor.blogspot.com/2010/08/cantaloupe-fruit-salad-with-surprise.html
Maybe I've eaten far too few melon and strawberries. Or maybe the mosquitos weren't out in enough force this year. Whatever the case, I'm not ready and your picture post is haunting, makes me want to cry. Although that could have something to do with the fact that my oldest child is going to full day school this week.
I am ready, too!
This post felt like a gift this morning.
Thanks.
Must be Labor Day. Drank the last St Lupulin's, all out of Palisade peaches, and Rocky Ford melons are in short supply. Ready for fall here, too.
There is definitely something different in the air and light now, and I think I'm not going to fight it.
Becca
Perfect transition post. Lovely. I know the weather is changing when my bones ache, and usually I get pretty grumpy, but this time I dont mind. Loved the photos. Beautiful. Welcome, Autumn!
beautiful pics! Yes, the seasons are changing here in Seattle...sad to see our summer go by so quickly, but excited for pumpkins and chai!
I wish I could say I'm reconciled to fall, but I'm not yet. I think I'll keep eating blackberries and wearing flip flops for as long as I can...
I'm ready, too. I've enjoyed your virtual company this summer.
Is there a lemon icebox cake recipe? I've seen some on other sites but I'd love to see your take on it!
Yes, the air was cool in the mountains today too. We hiked the waterfalls off the Blue Ridge Parkway and needed a jacket! Having a "season's end" bbq tonight...sweater on! Secretly, I'm ready as well!
You are embracing the next season so effortlessly? I am envious!
Just a couple of hours ago, as I realized it was Labor Day and thus the "official" end of summer fun, I bought a bottle of my favorite truly "summer wine" and determined to sit out on my patio and drink some as a toast to this day and the change of seasons. But I am not ready!! I.Am.Not.Ready. :)
Cold; Coldest Labor Day since 1913. We took three docks out of the lake at the cottage on Sunday. My grand-kids are 5th generation on the lake. Of course they thought summer should never end.
Love your book and your blog, keep it up and thanks.
At least you're ready! As much as I'm already looking forward to fall cooking and all the wonderful seasonal recipes I have bookmarked, I still can't bring myself to say goodbye to summer.
Even though we haven't had a typical California summer, I'm still lamenting its quick passing. I know...we're very spoiled out here.
I've really enjoyed your blog for some time. Thanks for all the entertaining stories. Your writing leaves me wanting more and envious of your style!
I just read your book and worked my way through a few recipes (half of a french-style yogurt cake is in my fridge at the moment). You are a beautiful writer. I have spent the last week immersed in your stories, both in the book and on this blog.
Looking forward to reading more!
p.s. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that you have almost all vegetarian recipes. =)
p.s.s. You/Brandon have convinced me to give cabbage another go. Eating it raw sounds awful, but I trust you.
beautiful, splendid photographs & happy start to "fall" molly…
love your summer memories and photos. and how i do love this in-between time.
I agree with vagabondgirl - the pics made me miss Seattle - they're wonderful, as are your comments. I will be visiting you when I come to visit my first grandchild in the spring - yes! My Jen is pregnant!
Molly those pictures are wonderful. Totally captured summer. (What little of it there was anyway ;-)
Georgeous!
that is the sweetest picture of cantaloupe. it looks like it's wearing a lace collar.
Wonderful photos!
The first shot is simply wonderful!
Ferry rides are definitely more fun in the summer. Rain kind of takes the fun out of the ride, doesn't it?
Ahhhh summer. Love these pics, Molly.
Please. Please. Please.
Do you have a lemon icebox cake recipe that is NOT made from boxed cake mix, and frozen whip topping? Firstly because I am in the UK and can't get those ingredients, and secondly because I prefer from-scratch cakes. I haven't had a lemon icebox cake for about 20 years, and I would LOVE to make one of yours ;)
I'm ready, too.
Love the summer photos! More power to your great blog.
Hi, friends! I'm glad you like the photos. Thanks, as always, for your comments. You're terrific.
To those of you who wondered about the lemon icebox cake, it was made by our friend Brandi Henderson, the pastry chef at Delancey. She made it for a dinner party, and she posted about it here, on her blog. (I also embedded the link in the words "lemon icebox cake" above, in the post.) It's a lot of work, but it's worth the trouble, I swear. I put away two fat slices, and I wish I'd had three.
*sigh*
Your lovely, wispy post with the beautiful pictures will be how I choose to remember my summer, I've decided. Mine was nowhere near as charming and lovely, so I will take yours. Thanks for evoking it so well that, as years go by, I will still be able to remember it so fondly!
What a lovely, sweet, simple, and touching way to say good-bye to summer. Thanks so much...somehow your post makes me feel like everything is just as it is meant to be and it is perfect.
Molly, I loved your post. Thank you for sharing your wonderful pictures and stories with us. :) I am heading to Seattle next weekend and I am dying to swing by Delancey for pizza.
I can tell you don't live in Minnesota.... (not ready)
these are beautiful pictures Molly! Thanks for sharing....
Molly, I just found your book, judged it by the cover...then cried all the way though...Missing my friend who died of cancer this year,(and taught me about sweet corn and locally roasted coffee) nostalgic for Italian markets and cheese and friends,(I lived there for 5 years) thinking about my daughter ,at college who, calls home to apologize for spending text book money on crushed figs with Spanish chocolate or the weeks grocery money feeding the whole building dinner, and feeling grateful to be as in love today as I was 25 years ago...read the whole thing in one sitting and then got up and had cheese, chocolate and apples for breakfast..off to the store, I have some much cooking to do. so glad your here, so I can keep being inspired.
Don't forget what wonders Fall brings up here in the PNW: juicy pears, crisp apples, warm fresh-pressed apple cider, bonfires, pumpkins, mulled local cider, pumpkin pies and soups! Wild grape and the last of the late peaches and necterines. And Quincy corn. I love fall!
Your photos are beautiful and a gift and just what I needed today. Thank you.
Beautiful pictures! I love the fall. I'm of a mind that fall is a lot like spring...anticipation of changes. Delightful.
jessyburke88@gmail.com
Oh me too!! - I loved this summer, but hope equally to love the fall.
Beautiful photographs.
Love the connection between photos and the whole story, it does indeed feel as if summer were back again.
Great job indeed!
hey,
i'm looking for a long time now to make a cake with lemon. it think i found it. just the name...
thx for the tip
Summer on a ferry in Washington is my idea of heaven. Especially if it's sunny out!
Glad that you had a lovely summer!
Beautiful, well composed pictures. Love it!
I love a good ferry ride and partake often. You've reminded me that I've let the melons pass me by. Every time I've seen a beauty it seems I've been on foot and not interested in strolling with the weight of a melon. I wonder if I can still find a good melon or two or if I've missed out. Sigh.
And now autumn.
I'm not sure how Molly, but your posts always bring a wee tear to my eye, even when they're happy...I simply love the strawberry one, the elegant wrist and the blown out light.
I love your blog, you are so artistic in your writing, you have a way of putting words together that is truely unique and captures the readers attention. I have to admit I love the change, as the leaves change colour and the air is crisper, I just love the changing seasons they are like a constant and each is beautiful in their own way. They are each so beautiful and unique and each have mysteries to unfold to you as you experience each of them again and again, learning to open to the world around you.
The photograph of (presumably) your back is wonderful. How do you achieve that 70's faded-out coloring? It would be highly appreciated, thank you Miss Wizenberg.
swm1017, that first photo of my friend Winnie. She has the best hair! I didn't do anything to achieve the color or the look you see; it's just the film. I took the shot with a Polaroid SX-70 camera, using Polaroid 600 film.
What a stunning site - beautiful. I love your wordage too - thank you
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