5 Ways We’re Enjoying Summer at The Cozy Cottage
Summer is my favorite season and it’s a particularly helpful time at the cozy cottage because we can extend our living space by more than double, between the front porch, backyard and garage. We’ve been trying to enjoy the season as best we can.
Gardening
The vegetable garden is Daniel’s baby and this year, he’s growing a couple different tomatoes, pepperoncinis and jalapenos, and a couple different cucumbers. Some of these vegetables are meant for pickling and half of our fridge has been taken over by large mason jars full of garden-grown pickles. Here’s a recipe Daniel once shared using only vegetables he grew in a previous summer garden.
While Daniel has the vegetable garden down, I’m working on the rest of the front and back gardens, trying to make them as colorful and lively for as much of the year as possible. Last year, I planted hostas along the property line where we once had a hedge and they have filled out nicely, and I also am excited to see the colorful flowers that grow in the front and back from the bulbs and seeds I planted in the fall and spring. To be honest, I don’t even remember half of what I planted!
Having Visitors and Seeing Family
We did it, we had visitors! After a year and a half apart, Daniel’s mother got to reunite with her grandson and it was magic! My mother-in-law stayed for almost two weeks and it was wonderful seeing her and Gus have so much fun together.
Daniel’s brother also came for a night and he actually discovered a kitchen cabinet we didn’t know we had! You can see that video in the Kitchen Reno stories saved on Instagram here.
And we’ve spent time with more family we haven’t seen in years, including getting to finally meet a baby born during the pandemic. Summertime and vaccines have made outdoor hangs possible and it’s been great.
Cocktails
You know how much we love cocktails around here and we have been not only enjoying our own #thirstythursday but we have been enjoying drinks and porch hopping with neighbors. For cocktail inspiration, see here and here.
Playtime
I’ll be honest, it’s hard for me to get creative to figure out how best to spend the chunk of time before and after naptime on weekends but whatever it is, it almost always involves playtime. That is either playing with toys or reading books inside the house, or entertaining himself with the toys and play area in the garage (the best decision I made this year!), playing with the hose and toys at the water table, the occasional walk to the playground just a couple of blocks away, or running around with the neighborhood kids whom he adores. And almost always, playtime involves him pretending to be or playing with dinosaurs.
Leaving the House
The beach, the beach, the beach, I can’t say enough about how much we love the beach. And Gus loves it too, thankfully. We only started going in the past couple of weeks (I have no idea why we let all of June slip away without having gone once!) and I hope we get to go at least once every two weeks (once a week would be great!) through the rest of the summer.
We’ve also gone to see art exhibits and meet with family and friends out and about, such as the KAWS: What Party exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum and the KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden. I have to figure out what we’re going to do next!
How have you been enjoying summer?
