Welcoming Summer with a Brown Paper Tablecloth

Best way to celebrate the first day of summer: on the Northern Neck enjoying summertime food and drink.

Truthfully, we were celebrating a belated Father's Day, but today being the start of the "living is easy" season, we made sure that the lazy porch meal fit the new season.

First off there was white sangria full of fruits and unknown liquors, but tasting mainly of mango and peach and the kind of libation that can be sipped all afternoon long without a second thought.

After a pleasant enough hour spent sipping and watching the tide come in, we were sufficiently hungry to do justice to the afternoon's feast.

Lunch was a half bushel of crabs heavily seasoned, paired with watermelon and hushpuppies as an accompaniment. Is there a simpler or more delicious summer meal? Not in my family.

As always, talk ranged over the latest news from my five sisters and their goings-on (I try to stay out of the fray and just get the bulletins).  There's always scuttlebutt with my family.

The sister who got married in New Orleans a few weeks after September 11th is having a ten-year anniversary party this fall.

I attended the fifth anniversary soiree down there and am still debating this one, so that was a major topic today. Will she or won't she?

After sating ourselves on crabs, I brought out the dessert I'd made to celebrate the summer solstice: peach ice cream.

Despite a mild peach allergy which causes my mouth to itch when I eat a little bit of peach and my tongue to swell when I overdo it, I think peach ice cream is irresistible.

And homemade peach ice cream enjoyed with white sangria on a breezy porch with  a view of the river? Downright decadent.

But I was only doing it for Dad. Really, it was all about the man who made me possible.

Or, as my Father's Day card said, "Thanks, Dad, for impregnating Mom!" Love, Karen.

He loved it and she cringed. Guess which one I favor.