We came home yesterday from a lovely small group lunch under the trees at Rachel and Bob's and I had this great idea. Why not take the kids out for a Sunday evening picnic? Occasionally we have a family night where I make a great dessert and we play a game, but I just wanted to get my family outside doing something together. We'd picnic at Wildwood and hike in the woods. Thus began an afternoon of extreme cooking and baking. (We should have an attractive, tempting picnic dinner, right? Chicken and potato salad? Apple pie?)

Three hours later, outside again in the shade, each child with a friend. We ate in a meadow, in the middle of a bush-hogged path, the picnic tables being taken over by wasps. Not quite what I had pictured but later we hiked the cool green paths. With evening coming on, the woods were almost silent. Puzzling, though; the jewelweed is long past bloom, the seed cases sprung, and not an aster in sight. What happened to my late summer wildflowers?