Suddenly we have gone from our volatile, rather chilly spring weather to warm sunshine and perfect temperatures. May often offers these tantalizing glimpses of summer and when they occur we rush outside and begin summer activities even though we know it is only a preview. This week the bright sun and sparkling water urged us to invite some friends for a traditional summer cook-out with hamburgers, potato salad and fruit....all the standard menu items of a thousand remembered picnics. The strong nostagic quality 
of all of this led me to choose a vintage tablecloth that came from Mike's mother. She loved picnics and used to drag us to the beach at the slightest hint of sunshine. Even though this dinner would be inside, using her tablecloth (which is not a reproduction, but a true printed cloth from the forties) reminded me so much of her. It's colors are a little unusual, and the bright red elements called for good strong red flowers. Of course it is still spring, so tulips were an obvious choice. The tulip fields of Skagit Valley are still rendering up their gorgeous bounty and I bought an armload of red. Scattering blue glass marbles in the bottom of the vase helped link the flowers to the color scheme. I only had three aqua colored Fiesta plates (I used to have four, what happened to the last one?) so I had to use green plates too. The Fostoria tumblers and the Danish flatware are also inherited from Mike's mother, so altogether it was a setting straight from her to us and our guests. We ate and drank and talked, enjoying the prospect of summer with all our hearts.