It’s the last week of July and the height of summer here in Houston. For the majority of the last month we’ve experienced the loudest and most apocalyptic thunderstorms you can imagine on a daily basis. Most of the time they last little over an hour, but during that hour it would rain so violently you can hardly see ten feet in front of you. It makes things like driving and working outside practically impossible, and the volume and ferocity of the thunder would make our little Border Collie’s hair stand up on end. It makes you think of a Spinosaurus, and she starts whimpering and pacing nervously. This was literally a daily occurrence, whether it was short-lived or hours of bunkering down counting our non-perishable foods. It was as sure as the sunrise and the grand orchestra of the cicadas in the late evenings. But about a week ago the storms calmed, and we’ve had several days of cloudless skies and uninterrupted sunshine. The temperature in Houston is punishing, and the muggy, humid air of the swampland upon which the Magnolia City was built feels prickly against your skin. The bush crickets and all the other singing insects seem to be out in full force, the anoles and the geckos are so abundant that trampling one underfoot seems inevitable, and hot damn are the hornets here fat as hell. But it’s perfect pool weather.
My roommates and I have taken advantage of this by hitting up the pool in our apartment complex almost every day this past week. We supplement morning workouts with lengths, triceps dips and swimming acrobatics, we sit in the dappled water and chat about the teachings of B.F Skinner whilst listening to the Trolls soundtrack on the new Bluetooth speaker, and some days we even mix some drinks and have our own little cabana party. Yesterday was definitely the latter! A few months ago, Lauren Gleisberg did a post on her blog about this Strawberry Ginger Lemonade she makes in the summers. My best friend Anne-Marie and I made a note of it on our phones to remind ourselves when summer came to try it out. We both follow and adore Lauren, who produces great content in the way of fitness plans, workout challenges, and cookbooks. If you’re a woman looking to get fit and connect with a whole network of others like you, then you should absolutely check out Lauren’s Insta or her blog and get involved.
Anyway, we couldn’t find the right day or time to cross this lemonade off our bucket list, until yesterday’s perfect conditions presented themselves. I’ll leave a link to Lauren’s blog post here, which contains the recipe. It is super refreshing and the ideal poolside beverage. If you want you can supplement it with something a little stronger. Lauren recommends Vodka, and I think something like Southern Comfort would be a good mix with this as well. If you really want to elicit that ginger flavor more, Anne-Marie suggests mixing it with a ginger beer. It’s very easy to make and won’t take up too much of your time. We did it in about half an hour or so. It seems the lemonade and our time spent poolside was the exact therapy I needed. My anxiety had me in a spiral earlier in the week, so I took a break from blogging to clear my head and reevaluate some things. And now that my little hiatus is over, it’s absolutely appropriate that I get back to work with this post right here. I hope you enjoyed reading and I hope you are tempted to try the lemonade (or any other of Lauren’s products and advice) out for yourselves!
Here are some pictures of the finished product! Hope you are all having a kick-ass summer.
TumbleweedWrites 