Summer!
For about five months I was only in Richmond during the week and stayed with a roommate in the Bellevue section of town. It's such a great neighborhood (sadly out of our price range), and down the street from my old roommate lives a neat couple who host summer and winter solstice parties, inviting the entire neighborhood to come celebrate.
We went to the winter solstice last December, and came back last Friday for the start of summer. The high point of each solstice is when the hostess passes out branches from her rosemary bush and everyone gets into a circle and leans in one direction or the other in the hopes of influencing the weather ever so slightly. (We leaned for snow in December).
Then everyone tosses their rosemary branch on the fire. It smells delicious. This time around, there was also a pair of musicians playing wonderful bluegrass music.
The building behind them is Jane's studio-- she's a great artist, and teaches neighborhood kids there as well as her own work.
