summertime | summertime

Jul.18.2012 Summer of Change You don't get to 50 without saying goodbye to a few family members and some close friends along the way. I don't know if my Grandfather's passing affected me so much because it was unexpected, or the fact that my life changed after his death. It was already a summer of change. My parents had...	May.31.2012 Why I Love Summer We all have certain things which make us feel happier, content, less stressed, and wanting to claim more from life. For some, it’s the smoothness of silk against their skin, the adoring face of a puppy, a friendly encounter, a child’s laughter, or the sensuality of a lovers kiss. True, all these...
Aug.03.2011 Fresh Off the Vine Well, I done et my tomato. . . I'd intended to give it another day or two, but last night when I went out to check on it like I normally do; touching the rich soil for dampness or dryness and giving it my customary caress, the tomato popped right off its sturdy stem into my welcoming hand. I tried...	Jul.11.2011 Summertime In Summer I hum to myself even though the fish are gone and the food is more costly. Is it the colors, blue, green? Or the sway of the short skirts, eyes meeting eyes so boldly? With people's attention gone, instead of trumpeting war, headlines turn to mere gossip leafed in sidewalk restaurants...
Jul.09.2011 More Summer Memories More Summer MemoriesWhen I think of the summers of my childhood, the long evenings after dinner come to mind. There was something magical about that time of day. The sun began to loosen its steamy grip on the earth as it slowly became a large orange ball in the western sky. Birds sang their...	Jun.02.2011 Cicadas, Mary Ellen's Birthday, and Biting Flies When we step out of the kitchen into the garage, the roar of the cicadas fill our ears. It took Gerald a couple of days to figure out what he was hearing because he thought surely something mechanical was happening beyond the woods that borders our west field. After sleeping 13 years, those...
Oct.05.2010 Sit Up and Take Notice, It's Fall In spite of my best effort to hang onto Summer, I do believe Fall is leaping into action, kicking summer around, dragging it off to the trash heap. There it goes, thrashing the tree branches around, scaring up the leaves and sending them all in a dither to gutters and windbreaks. I thought at...	Jun.30.2010 Summer Plums A friend of mine who emigrated here from Lebanon brought some fresh plums to me, straight from the tree in his garden. They have an aroma of roses and sunlight. When you bite into one, the juice runs down your arm and the flavors of sweet languid summer, songs sung on twilight porches, rope...
Apr.26.2010 Simple pleasures II When I was growing up, I don't ever remember complaining too much about being bored. Okay, we might complain towards the end of summer; maybe when the days started to seem all the same, and we were looking forward to going back to school, at least a little bit. Actually, we learned early on that...	Jul.28.2008 Hello, there Today was a perfect summer day, not one cloud in the sky, the humidity gone, a slight breeze, and hot enought to enjoy it. Aedan had camp today, so Ally and I went to our local pool. Why is it that as soon as you plop down on a sandy blanket that it is so easy to become lost in a book? I was...