Skip has decreed that today marks the unofficial opening of the summer season, as we kick things off with a return to our BroSox Adventure tradition, making the quick trek to Boston to see a game at Fenway tomorrow. He always said that our June games were his signal that summer had arrived, and so we follow his lead and mark this as the start to our summer season at ALANILAGAN.com – we deserve an extra-long summer this year after all that 2020 dealt us. In the past I would wait until the scientific start of the summer solstice, and post our opening summer entry accordingly – that gets upended this year as it’s a new era and a new world. We shall make our own rules, and if that means starting summer now, let us then have the damn thing now, and make it as long and luxurious as we can possibly muster!
As is customary, every summer season must come with a song, and rather than wait until the end of the season to christen it, let’s put it out there now as it’s a classic, and it sets the perfect tone: nostalgic and sweet.
Where the boys are
Someone waits for me
A smiling face
A warm embrace
Two arms to hold me tenderly
Our honorary ‘Aunt’ Elaine visited us with my parents the other day – on an extremely hot and sunny day that felt more like summer than summer itself, and I was reminded that when she mentions us to Suzie she simply calls us ‘the boys’ – a term of affection that tickles my 45-year-old self, and allows me to hold onto the notion of boyhood just a little bit longer. We had several nice pool-side chats, and I’m glad she’s back up north for the summer. Yet another gift of the season.
Where the boys are
My true love will be
He’s walking down some street in town
And I know he’s looking there for me
Our summer scene revolves mostly around the pool and the gardens and the patio – little pockets of atmosphere and oasis that we have created, blending and blurring the outdoors and indoors with a canopy dome and drapes. This year we have also inserted this Scandi attic loft space into one of the summer places to be. It looks down onto a lattice of climbing hydrangea, which reaches up to offer its sweetly-perfumed blooms somewhere between the ground and the loft.
Mostly, though, our focus will be on the water – the closest we can get to the sea – and a happy-enough approximation of what it’s like to float in heavenly suspension, lulled by little waves, sprinkled by the sparkle of a bright sun.
We have thus far gotten off to a jerky start, with stretches of cool and rainy days slowing and stunting the usual trajectory of fast-growth and quick-filling-in of foliage. Our potted fig trees are only just putting out their first leaves now, and the hanging sweet potato vines have just started to peep over the edge of their containers – they’d typically have already leapt by now. Still, nature will correct herself, and with a few hot days she will put us back on track and have everything completely caught up.
In the crowd of a million people
I’ll find my valentine
And then I’ll climb to the highest steeple
And tell the world he’s mine
For now, I’m enjoying the stilted climb – cooler day and nights make for longer flower displays, and the flowers that are appearing now – such as this peony – are some of my favorites.
Lavender is also in bud, and these tiny spikes of purple pungency remind us that our friend Josie will be visiting in a little over a month. Lavender is one of her favorites, and indicative of the peace and happiness our friendship has brought to each of us over the years. We haven’t seen her since well before COVID hit, which means almost two years, so this summer will mark a long-overdue and much-needed reunion. Another gift. Another item for which we show gratitude.
This petunia is filled with the kind of pizzazz that personifies the most electric of summer days. Its smiling face and happy vibrance makes me think of my niece and nephew, jumping into the pool and bursting into every scene with their youthful exuberance and joy, the kind of giddiness that can only come when you’re a kid just out of school with the whole summer laid out before you. Summer sprawls, summer unfurls, summer releases its intoxicating magic…
There are more summer songs to come. Aside from fragrance, a song is the best way to conjure a memory, and we will make a few more this season.
Till he holds me
I’ll wait impatiently
Where the boys are
Where the boys are
Where the boys are
Someone waits for me
Tiny blooms of white have begun to show themselves on the little stalks of lemon thyme that spill onto the pool deck. The hotter the concrete gets, the more they seem to love it. Summer stalwarts, undiminished by her heat and intensity, they are ever-ready to offer a bit of olfactory release in the form of lemony brilliance with a few crushed leaves. Thus our summer season at ALANILAGAN.com begins – quietly, gently, with just the slightest zip of zest. We tentatively embrace the sun… and the water… and it begins again…
Till he holds me
I’ll wait impatiently
Where the boys are
Where the boys are
Where the boys are
Someone waits for me
