When Amy proposed a picnic in Seattle to celebrate her birthday I offered my roof as a backup if none of the parks worked out. But then the lure of real furniture and a grill led us to scrap plans for the park and lean in to all the rooftop had to offer.

Amy and Carol brought beans and zucchini from their gardens, plus a chocolate cake and raspberry tart (the raspberries also from their gardens). Justin and I contributed a handful of other vegetables, a variety of sausages, and some fresh baked chocolate cookies. After a flurry of chopping and marinading and grilling, we settled down in the shade of the umbrella and had a three-hour lunch that just couldn’t have been more pleasant.

Amy and Carol left us to visit their farm up north of Seattle and go swimming at the river—while Justin and I cleaned up, went on a nice long walk to look at gardens in the neighbourhood, and then did streaming movie night with the new Mulan.

A few minutes into the movie and the doorbell rang—and there in the dark was Carol, in her still-wet bathing suit, offering a bag of Gravenstein apples from the farm!! These are the famous Washington apples that she uses for her delicious apple pies for which she gave Justin the recipe this afternoon. So I guess we’ll be making apple pie for Labor Day!