Sarah posted yesterday her list of ten things she’d like to do this summer. I thought I’d follow suit, particularly since this summer will not offer much in the way of vacation:

1. Go to the beach. Frequently, if it’s possible.
2. Pick blueberries and raspberries. We’ve already tackled strawberries. These are up next later this month.
3. Attend the Folklife Festival. An annual tradition.
4. Knit a summer sweater. I’ve started two. Now is the time to pull them out and finish one.
5. Have a barbecue with the rest of our building’s residents. We keep talking about this.
6. Play Frisbee and Wiffle Ball. They’re always in the car, just waiting to pull over to the side of the road for some impromptu fun.
7. Watch the final Harry Potter movie. Perhaps at midnight. Definitely at the Uptown.
8. Go swing dancing at Glen Echo. Definitely this year, particularly since we’re missing the Seersucker Social this weekend.
9. Catch an outdoor movie. Like a drive-in, but without the car. D.C. has lots to offer, from classics to flicks missed last year.
10. Picnic along the river. Georgetown has a riverfront park that Rudi and I keep considering bringing a blanket to, and The Yards has just opened up over by the ballpark and is offering Friday night music.

What about you? What are you hoping/planning to do this summer?

Today’s Ten on Tuesday topic is Ten Favorite Things to Do Outside. I’m sticking to summer activities, since that was implied, but I could come up with another ten for the colder months:

1. Go to the beach. Bring a book. Bring a bathing suit. Bring a parka. Bring a grape soda and some chips. Doesn’t matter the season. Doesn’t matter the weather. Rainy, sunny, snowy, windy, hot, cold, idyllic. It’s all good. Honestly, life is just always better after you spend some time at the ocean.
2. Sit at a cafe. Admittedly, this is probably the domain of those of us urban dwellers without access to a backyard, but it’s still lovely in the evening after work to plunk down at a table with a drink, a book, a knitting project, an iPod, and a crossword. Or another person. That’s even better.
3. Picnic and barbecue. Be it lunch up at Mitchell Park on a Saturday or a weekend evening picnic with the gang, hummus and cheese and cold salads just scream summertime. And, just this past Sunday, we broke out the grill for burgers cooked on the stoop. You can bet we’ll be repeating that and we’re even talking about inviting the rest of the building’s residents to partake one evening in an effort to be more neighborly.
4. Reconnect with the earth. Summer is the time for berry picking. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. Doesn’t really matter. I love them all and coming home with a flat of them after a day at a farm makes every mouthful that much sweeter.

   It’s also the time to get out to the garden and grow some things of my own. It’s a really cool feeling to watch things you’ve planted from seed or seedling or kitchen waste grow into legitimate food items. I mean, we grow peanuts and potatoes and strawberries and lettuce! How crazy is that?

5. Get artsy. From Jazz in the Sculpture Garden to Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and from big name performers at formal concert sites to local church brass ensembles putting on a street corner show in the Circle, music is another thing that only gains from outdoor exposure.

   And while I know that it is not necessary to view the Bard’s work outdoors, I find myself really only interested in attending performances al fresco. Unfortunately, D.C. has gotten rid of that option, but last year Rudi and I saw a great performance back at Conn in the Arbo and the year before we watched an abridged (I know!) version up in Olney. I can’t really countenance such adaptation, so I’m going to have to hunt around to see what some of the other local ‘burbs can offer me.

6. Attend festivals. Although the season technically starts in early spring with the Cherry Blossom Festival and the Kite Festival, the traditional start of the season is the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in early May. It’s anchored in early summer by the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and goes through the end of September and the National Book Festival (two days this year instead of just one!). You just never know what you’re going to learn or see!
7. Ride my bike. Don’t tell Rudi, but I actually enjoy tooling around on my bike quite a bit. I’ll never be the cyclist he is, but there is something cool about knowing you can propel yourself 20 miles in an afternoon. And I’d never see some of the places I’ve visited or the wildlife I’ve spotted if I’d had to go on foot or by car or public transit.
8. Drink daiquiris. My dad makes the best virgin strawberry daiquiris in the world. I hear his full octane ones are also pretty good.
9. Watch baseball. We’re part of a group that goes in on season tickets to the Nationals, so Rudi and I catch ten or so games of major league ball each year. While I’m particularly fond of a Mets-Nationals match-up, I’m happy anytime I can get to the ball park. The crack of the bat is just a summertime sound. And a ballpark at twilight is just a magical place.
10. Lie in a hammock. Because after all that gardening, festival going, gardening, and bike riding, sometimes you just need a nap.

I can’t figure out what to delete from the above group to fit in camping, but know if this were a list of eleven, my love of campfires and stargazing would shoot this onto the list. And if it were an even dozen, dancing in a torrential July downpour would probably round out the twelve.

Check out the other participants’ lists at Carole’s blog. And feel free to share your own favorite warm-weather outdoor activities in the comments.

Carole has, on occasion, written posts that are comprised of three lists of three related things. I’m stealing a post from her blog (it’s just not as seamless a phrase as the page-book metaphor) here:

Three things about my knitting:

1. I have three semi-active projects (meaning I’ve knit on each of them in the last three weeks) on my needles. All three were started at different times, but all three are green.

2. Sock Madness continues, but my portion of the insanity is done. I was knocked out of the competition Sunday night with only one+ of my socks done. I am still working on that sock. (Yes, it’s green.)

3. I have only bought two skeins of yarn so far this year. This streak may come to an end this weekend when Sarah and I head up to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival on Sunday. Or, perhaps, I’ll decide that I have enough pretty yarns that are in my stash at home. It could happen.

Three things I’m unreasonably frustrated by:

1. My work schedule is such this year that I won’t be able to go out to Portland this summer for Sock Summit.

2. One of my galoshes has developed a gash on the side. Large slices in your boots tend to defeat the waterproof nature generally prized in such items.

3. I can’t find the bars of soap I bought in France when I was there three years ago. (Hey, it was a practical souvenir!) It would now be generous to describe the current bar in the bathroom as a shard, and I refuse to buy more when I know I have several tucked safely away somewhere.

Three things I’m looking forward to this weekend:

1. Morels at the farmers’ market.

2. Climbing up to the top of the tower at the National Cathedral.

3. EU Day. I’m thinking I might try Belgium and Finland this year.

Feel free to share your own three random things in the comments.

In honor of Earth Hour, an international event created to raise awareness of energy conservation, Rudi and I turned off our computers, unplugged most of our electronics, and prepared to embrace the darkness of a Saturday night in early spring.

I lit candles, Rudi tidied up a bit, and we brewed a pot of tea. Then, as 8:30 rolled around, we turned off the last light in the Burrow and settled in. There was some ambient street noise, but far less than either of us expected.

I knit (albeit slowly) along on Rudi’s sock. Rudi pulled out his guitar and a Beatles songbook, and he played music for me, and we sang and talked about the songs.

The hour flew by and was well on its way through a second one when we realized we hadn’t yet had dinner, so we flipped a few switches in order to cook some food. Otherwise, I think we could easily have stayed in the darkness quite contentedly for the rest of the night.

Every time we do something like this, we say we should do it more often. I hope this time we’ll follow through on it, because it was just about the perfect date night.

Today’s Ten on Tuesday topic appealed to me not just because I’m just home from a long drive that followed a depressing vet diagnosis and a stomach ailment (just so you don’t feel too bad for me, the visit also included a birthday party, a baby, and a best friend) and could use a quick list-as-post fodder, but also because smell is such a powerful emotion-producer.

Here are ten of my favorite scents:

1. Vanilla — It’s the smell of all great baked items and the most basic and beautiful base for ice cream.
2. The ocean — Salt, sunscreen (or anything coconutty that reminds me of it), drying seaweed… Anyone who tells you they love the smell of the shore except for low tide doesn’t really love the smell of the shore. It’s all or nothing, baby.
3. Pizza — If the scents of tomatoes, yeast, and cheese don’t waft past you as you open the door of a pizzeria, back out the door and run like the wind, because it will not satisfy that longing deep inside you.
4. Freshly washed hair — Particularly if it’s baby shampoo, but just about any will do.
5. Laundry dried outside — The dryer makes for the coziest towels, but otherwise nothing beats laundry just pulled in from the line.
6. Play-doh — I’m not proud. I have several containers I keep around as aromatherapy on bad days.
7. Crayola crayons — Did you know my generation is the first one to have equally vivid positive memories of manufactured items as of natural ones?
8. Sun-kissed berries — Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries: It really doesn’t matter which.
9. Fresh flowers — Roses (ones that actually smell rosy, as opposed to some of the more long-lasting recent strains they’ve developed), lilacs, clover, violets, hyacinths, and lavender are all simply lovely.
10. The weather changing — You can smell snow coming in the winter. There’s an electric smell just before a summer thunderstorm. Leaves mouldering under your feet mean fall has arrived. And deep, wet, earthworm-turned earth says spring is right around the corner.

What smells make you dance with joy?