Summer has felt fleeting in Ireland this year--like a will 'o the wisp you chase but never seem able to capture, but in the last few days we feel as though we have captured and tamed this halycon season.

I don't live in the suburbs right now, but visiting friends in the 'burbs definitely takes me back to the years in my childhood when we lived in similarly quiet streets with green lawns and friendly neighbors. In fact, this whole post from the setting, to my sparklers, and even my glow-in-the-dark dress of captured fireflies, calls back to my childhood. You can't see it that well in pictures, but this dress was really glowing--a year old and still so striking when the sun goes down, I think I need to wear it next time I'm invited to sit around a campfire. Anyway, I clearly can not get my fill of sparklers and with warm summer evenings luring you to stay outdoors why shouldn't you light one up?

I keep forgetting that it's not officially summer yet when we have so many days that feel like summer. It's not just the temperatures--I see evidence in the fields turning golden and the children drawing with chalk on the sidewalks when they would usually be in school. There's evidence of a more energetic and free season when I visit lakes like this one, so quiet in winter filling with canoes and people swimming. Since summer is perhaps my favorite season I have few complaints. This dress is (as a friend told me when I put it on) a perfect summer dress; ideally I would wear the nautical themed piece by the ocean, but as I'm a bit land-locked the lakes and rivers in my area will have to suffice. It's really the colors of the dress that drew me too it--the cream base with splotches of teal, I have many things in my closet to match it with and I love how it looks with red accents.