Summer rituals..

Today I did two of my favorite summer rituals .. I planted plants and made macaroni salad with tuna.

plants...
The deck looks amazing -- local folks are welcome on nice days for a chat :) -- especially if you're teaching summer classes and need a break, as I'm very close to school.

I decided to plant only the big pots -- and ended up with exactly the right number of plants, dirt and pots -- which is pretty amazing. I have some flowers and a wide variety of green plants. I've got the obligatory patio tomato plant. I'm also trying a pot of lettuce -- which may give us a salad, or may end up to be just nice color. I have lots of herbs, most of which I chose for the smell and appearance, rather than any expectation that I'll cook with them :). For the Queen and the Minion, I have a pot of catnip.

I found the perfect, and inexpensive round patio table at IKEA (which doesn't seem to be on their website) -- it could seat four fairly well, glass top and white legs -- It fits perfectly in the corner of my deck. Now, it has nice flowers all around it -- YEA!

The food...
The salad is simple -- whole wheat spiral pasta (2 boxes), 1 onion, several stalks of celery, a little bit of pickle relish, 3 big cans of tuna and a dressing that is mostly Kraft's mayo with olive oil, with some yellow mustard and whatever tangy mystery dressing you happen to have handy. I chop sharp cheddar cheese into small cubes and put it on the side (mixing it in makes it slimy) -- I also put frozen peas on top -- because I like them. We'll eat the bowl of salad for days -- and only really get tired of it when it's almost gone.

So -- what are your summer rituals?