Chilled mango lassi, long starry nights in a hammock, a racing Santa in Spandex along El Camino Real and of course our golden rule, twenty minutes of reading every morning…these are a few of our favorite summer things.

Yes, a forthnight ago we witness a snowy-white bearded man with sculpted calves in black Spandex biking along the Pacific. I pointed him out to the boys stating that Santa is attaining his shape for the Big Day…“Yes, he’s in disguise,” says my middle bear. In my mind, I’m wondering if they still believe in the magical mystery man, or if they are simply playing along for the excitement and wondrous wrapped gifts that mysteriously appear overnight under our decorated spruce. While I can still banter with the element of playfulness wrapped around the bearded old fella, even in July, yes he’s watching so dawdle under those fluffy covers in the morning to read a few extra pages and keep the mind sharp. Nothing seems to capture middle bear’s attention, at least nothing past the cover of the book, so I’m always grasping for ways to convert his aversion to reading and tap into his bookworm impulse. These days he fancies reading to baby bear so I couldn’t resist snagging up these books at an estate sale. I had some spare change from the farmer’s market so I trailed the duct-taped cardboard signs advertising an estate sale that I apparently was just about to miss. While I made it with a few random items still available, I gravitated toward these vintage books.

Pierre by Maurice Sendak is middle bear’s favorite read and I love reading Summer Birds to baby bear. Written by Newbery Honor-winning author, Margarita Engle, the book captures the curious soul of Maria Merian. Growing up in the Middle Ages things were certainly different including people’s perception of insects. See what a thirteen year old without electronics can do for the world—she changed the perception of thousands of years dating back to antiquity even to what those ingenious Greeks had believed by watching caterpillars spin themselves into chrysalises and cocoons and later bursting out to reveal summer birds or butterflies and moths. While we haven’t been participating in many summer fetes this season, we rarely will pass up a garage sale…you never know what you may find. How’s your summer reading going? Hope you have a chance to snuggle under those sheets for a bit longer in the am cradling a captivating book. Cheers to endless ocean horizons, especially mauve infused ones, our budding pomegranate, citrus and fig trees (even if they are in pots) and to the love of reading this summer, oh yes and to those summer birds.