Summer

Just when I think we have skipped summer altogether here in northern California, October rolls around and brings us lovely, warm days. Just when the rest of the country is donning sweaters, we are pulling out shorts and flipflops. I don't need a long, sweaty summer but I do relish a few weeks of hot weather to make me grateful when the cooler days arrive for good.

We've had quite a foggy, cool "summer," so it was a huge pleasure to have a day so warm that I remembered with excitement that I had a cucumber in the fridge. Cucumber sandwiches almost define summer for me.

I get out my mother's ancient Slice-a-Slice, so well used that the wooden stop at the bottom is splintered from decades of cutting, and make bread so thin as to be lacy. A scrape of mayo and thick slices of cuke are all that is needed. The cukes always fall out, lubricated by the mayo I suppose, but I patiently put them back in and relish the result.

Sometimes, I challenge the seasons and make this sandwich in midwinter, just to remind myself that summer is coming, but it's always better when I can take it out onto the deck under a tree, wearing shorts and flipflops.