Sweet Southern Living!

Summertime, and the livin' is eeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzyyyyy!!! Well, I sort of wear that tagline out from June through September, but it is a classic line from a classic American Opera and it provides a great mental image of just barely gettin' through all the Summertime heat and humidity in Charleston with the help of the beach, pool, cool beverages and well, easy livin'. But when Mid-September comes along I am not singing so much about easy livin' as I look forward to what I like to call the eight months of AWESOMENESS from October through May. This is the time when local celebrity and Live 5 News weatherman Bill Walsh frequently refers to the major feature controlling our local weather as "the Dome of Delight" and delightful it is.

Whatever you want to call it, I call it time for sitting on the front porch enjoying high temps in the upper 70's through Thanksgiving Day. And nothing can beat Christmas shopping downtown under the palm trees on King Street then coming home to relax with a glass of wine on the back patio, a fire in the fireplace while enjoying a beautiful sunset. Speaking of the holidays, it is not uncommon to spend New Years Day in the back yard with a rack or two of ribs in the smoker cooking slowly towards perfection. And how could you not look forward to a neighborhood block party and oyster roast in late January. That's how we do fall and winter here in the Lowcountry.

Yet another great reason to love Autumn livin' in the The Land of Palm Trees is the opportunity to do a second planting of the vegetable garden. I bought a couple of early yield bush tomato plants, some cukes, zuchinni squash and some head lettuce to plant in the garden this week. Fresh tomato and cucumber salads are fabulous in the fall. Tomorrow I plan on digging in some new herbs to replace the aging ones in the kitchen garden that thanks to the heat and humidity of August are a bit past their prime. The back yard flowers are in full late summer bloom as well. They seem to be fond of the "dome of delight" too.

Of course, another great weather weekend is on the threshold here in From The Land of Palm Trees and with a wedding anniversary night out planned for Grill 225 on Saturday evening I will be loving every minute of it, blessed better than I deserve. I hope that you have a great weekend as well, From The Land of Palm Trees.