The only drawback to an otherwise stereotypically perfect summer afternoon on the lawn at Tanglewood—the grass a sensuous carpet; mint juleps mixed by my friend Joe, an expert muddler; the occasional tiny breeze blowing in off the Stockbridge Bowl ("bowl" being a word you can apparently substitute for lake in the Berkshires); the first tomatoes of the season paired with fresh mozzarella and basil; the sunshine bronzing the whirling legs and arms of hundreds of children (and no doubt hastening melanomas in the rest of us without umbrellas or shade); Pinchas Zuckerman's sensitive rendering of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D (the fine accompaniment of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and Jens Georg Bachmann's conducting notwithstanding)—is the summer sun itself. On a cloudless day, you can't see the goings-on inside the Koussevitzky Music Shed. The contrast between the too-bright air and the shadowy interior makes it impossible to discern any sensitive bowing by Zuckerman, or competent bowing by the second violinist, or bombastic baton wielding by Bachmann during the Shostakovich, or modest bows by the BSO—not even with Joe's field glasses, brought expressly for the purpose of viewing all of this from the cheap seats.

My companions pointed out, however, that seeing the orchestra in action was somewhat beside the point. We were out here on the lawn, to a certain extent, because we didn't want to sit on benches inside the open-air shed. We wanted no part of inside. We wanted to be out in the sun, to spread out our picnic basket, to feel the hot air bump against itself with our mint juleps in hand, beach chairs at various angles of repose. We had come to hear the music, yes, but you can hear the music just fine out on the lawn. (And, to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what sensitive bowing looks like.)

Lying back on the lawn, the angle of my chair's recline widening toward 180 degrees with each freshening of my julep by thoughtful Joe, I mused that what had drawn Lee Anne and me to accept Joe's invitation to schlep an hour and a half to Lenox was not primarily the music. (Actually, Lee Anne and I never discussed this point and she may disagree; perhaps she has a secret crush on Pinchas Zuckerman.) What excited me was this very idea of summer embodied in the promise of an afternoon at play; those sunny hours stretching beyond their normal capacity for light until they finally fade and you're left exhausted and woozy, light-drunk.

And Tanglewood didn't disappoint. After the concert, we lingered on the grass and talked about nothing, watching the people process out. We drove home into a soft sunset.

(A recommendation: The BSO ends its season at Tanglewood every summer with a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Yes, it's cliché, but what else are you doing August 28?)

The day before, we took in the Rosendale Street Festival (a Chronogram-sponsored event), a former summer staple happily returned to the ranks of annual events due to the diligence of a hard-working corps of volunteers. Aside from hearing (and watching!) my co-worker Julie's band, the all-girl punk duo Guitars and Hearts, I feel the highlight of festival was the sausage barker in front of the Rosendale Cement Company, a drag queen in fishnet stockings and a minidress straight from the costume vault of "Laugh-In," hawking "nice hot wieners." The wieners were quite tasty, especially washed down with a cold pint of Keegan Ale.

As summer makes its last stand (September, though technically still in season, is merely an interstitial point before the fall), I thought it might be useful to remind you of some of the outdoor offerings that we didn't have room to cover in this month's issue:

Bird-on-a-Cliff Theater performs "Macbeth" on their outdoor stage at the Comeau Property in Woodstock on weekend evenings through Labor Day, starting August 5. 

Performance artist Carl Welden puts the underground music scene back underground at the Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale on Saturday, August 20 with the Underground Experimental Musical Festival, featuring the Lothars, a Theremin ensemble.

Chronogram is a sponsor of the Artists Soapbox Derby, that wacky, gravity-powered kinetic sculpture race down Kingston's Strand on Sunday, August 21.

Jacob's Pillow, another Berkshire summer fixture in Becket, Massachusetts, offers free dance concerts on their outdoor stage at 6:30pm, Wednesday through Saturday.

Jay Ungar and Molly Mason will bring their fiddle and guitar Americana to the rustic Maverick Concert Hall in Woodstock on Saturday, August 27.

I typed the bulk of this piece on my front porch last night—outside, sweet outside—as the neighborhood kids lit off their leftover fireworks and the cicadas clicked and chirruped madly on the night air. Summer's almost gone. Enjoy it while you can.

—Brian K. Mahoney