Gardens, Shakespeare, and Hot Dancing

It's summertime, and the livin' is easy. Our backyard garden is starting bare some fruit. Vivian picked our first orange tomato and green beans on Saturday, and we were able to produce enough lettuce to make a fresh salad. There's nothing quite as tasty as produce from your own soil. In other news, I turned on our sprinkler system for the first time on Saturday. We've had so much rain lately that I haven't had much reason to try it out yet, but it was honestly quite fun to turn it on for the first time. Little sprinkler heads started popping up all over the yard, pushing their way out of the dirt and mud from a the world's longest winter. One pipe underneath a new patch of concrete seems to be broken, but other than that, it looks like our lawn will be able to get some water whether it rains for not.

On Saturday night, Vivian and I attended yet another one of our favorite summer traditions — Shakespeare on the Green at Elmwood Park. I've attended performances for the last three years (in 2009, 2008, and 2007) and have always had a fabulous time, even when we were rained out. I arrived early enough to grab a decent spot before the park filled up with other spectators. Those of us who arrived before the show were able to enjoy some singers dressed in period garb, our favorite juggler, some Irish folk music, and a miniature version of Romeo and Juliet performed by a local high school drama club.

As for the main event, this year's production was a musical version of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and while I would have preferred a more straight interpretation of Shakespeare, it was still a great show.

On Sunday, we had another episode of Lindy in the Park. It was starting to feel more like July, which required more liberal use of sunblock and ample quantities of Ted & Wally's ice cream afterward (Amaretto and almond — yummy). We had a great turnout despite the heat.