Summer smells better after you've gotten pool water up your nose.

I've just discovered this fact, although I'm positive I used to know it when I was a kid so I suppose I just re-discovered it.

Suddenly the air smells sweeter, not just with cut grass or flowers, but with summer. There's really no describing it, you have to go out and try it for yourself. This is one of those magical experiences that make you totally Present and Grateful for a moment.

Really, just try it.

This weekend I was invited to guest lecture at Barefoot Botanicals' Herbs Through the Seasons monthly class in Doylestown PA. I'm telling you, if you are ANYWHERE nearby, you should take this class. One student drove up from her NJ shore vacation just to participate! Linda of Barefoot just inspires that kind of passion.

I talked about muscles and herbs, and followed the class out for Linda's botany lesson. I took this class with her last year, and it was great to see the same lightbulbs going off for her current students as I remember from my experience. Wild carrot IS Queen Anne's Lace?! Oh, I get it! Linda's co-teacher, Sharon Moncrief (Greenbrier Herbalist), was there for her skeletal system talk in the afternoon. I couldn't stay for that portion, but she and I got to chat as well- so interesting!

Barefoot's farm is just beautiful. It's so lush and varied. Linda and Eric supply local restaurants (she was telling us about a green coriander encrusted scallop dish!), have a CSA and farmer's market stand, and Linda grows cut flowers and medicinal herbs as well. There's an amazing variety of plants, both wild and cultivated, in a wide variety of micro-climates on their piece of land. Dry, wet, full sun, full forest, everything is available.

So go say Hi to Linda and her husband Eric at the Doylestown Farmer's Market on Saturdays, and check out Linda's 7 month class for next year. You will learn SO MUCH!

Adam Swartz Puppets out of State College PA is doing their annual summer library tour. If you live near a Pennsylvania library, tell them to get onboard with the most fun summer show around!

Ooo- update! I just saw this on their website: We will travel almost anywhere on earth, or even extra-terrestrially, to perform or present a workshop. So anybody anywhere can get a puppet show!

The library theme this year is Super Heroes. Adam and Kathy, and their puppets, work in lessons about kindness, self esteem, team work, and other 'kid friendly' topics, with enough puns and bad (not inappropriate!) jokes for the grown ups to enjoy themselves as well. The kids also get to show off their super powers!

I've known Adam and Kathy for years and years, and it was such treat to visit with them yesterday! But I wasn't the only weirdo laughing in the audience, plenty of parents were snorting and groaning and giggling too.

Love you guys, I'm so glad we could spend the afternoon together!

Here's the link to their website again: http://adamswartzpuppets.com/.

Please permit me an indulgence. You see, today is July 1.

Yesterday was the last day of my lease at my old pilates studio. It was my last chance to move things out, my last chance to look around and hear echoes of my past.

I'm very pleased with how my life has changed in the last 6 weeks, but there's still a sense of nostalgia knowing I won't climb those stairs again, or count them to descend in the dark. I won't see the evidence of the expansion that happened a few years ago thanks to the energy of a motivated friend. I won't have to look at the sagging ceiling panel, or struggle with the old windows again. I also won't have a second-story 90 degree view of trees and a field, windows on 3 sides to catch breezes, or risk being startled by a helicopter as it floats by at almost eye level checking the high-tension power lines in the spring.

It was also fitting that, since I canceled the power company already, I couldn't vacuum the space one last time. So I grabbed the OLD broom and swept all 958 square feet by hand, as best I could. Out the door, down the stairs, and onto the pavement, I sent the last evidence of my occupancy into the world.

THAT life is all behind me now, and I'm satisfied.