Oh Summer!

 

               June is almost over and summer is in full swing.  We’ve had Father’s Day and my older daughter’s birthday and now we’re bearing down on the July 4^th weekend which will likely be noisy with folks lighting off fireworks in the street and in their yards.  Lawn mowers, blowers, power washers and the sounds of road equipment mingle with the voices of children splashing in backyard pools and riding bikes in the heat of the day.  With the daily birdsong, chittering of squirrels and humming of insects flying busily from flower to flower and person to person, these are the elements of the song of summer.  Even the nights are full of sounds with peepers and tree toads, the soft swish of traffic on the highway, crunch of gravel under tires on the side street, and voices floating from patios and open windows as people relax after the heat of the day.

               When I was a kid summer meant days spent mostly outside from morning until bedtime.  Swinging, riding bikes, walking to a friend’s house or to the store with my mother, running through the sprinkler, or reading books for hours laying on a blanket in the shade are all things that filled the hot sunny days.  After dinner was for playing tag or hide and seek with my brothers and cousins, and sipping lemonade on the porch with my family as bugs swarmed around the yellow bulb in the porch light.  I remember one time when a huge bug landed right in the middle of my brother Dan’s belly and my mother said it was June bug, which is a type of very large beetle.  It was brown with shiny hard looking wings and was as large as my father’s thumbnail.  My brother screamed (as did I) and quickly brushed it off his yellow t-shirt.  We used to catch lightning bugs and put them in mayonnaise jars we had punched holes in the lid with nails and filled with some blades of grass and watch them light up the darkness like tiny lanterns later in our rooms.  Of course, if you made the air holes in the lid too big the bugs ended up on your ceiling or window screen because they just crawled out.  I don’t imagine my mother liked it very much when that happened, but I don’t remember her ever mentioning it.  I guess it just came with the territory of raising 4 kids, 3 of whom were boys and teaching them about nature.  Summer nights were filled with the sounds of my father watching TV, the whirring of the window fan, and the peepers’ high pitched singing broken up occasionally by the fire siren and howling dogs.  Our neighbor 2 doors down kept 3 or 4 hunting dogs and boy did they howl when the fire siren went off.  It was an eerie sound in the middle of the night that always gave me a hollow feeling inside.  It seems the summer is never quiet.

               As we move into July and then into August the sounds of summer change, acorns begin to fall from our oak tree onto the driveway and roof in July, crickets begin to sing and locusts and grasshoppers make themselves heard with their nonstop noise that sounds like thousands of tiny wooden beads being shaken together.  I marvel at the songs that nature sings, especially in summer.

Nature Calms

                                  Just a little bunny in the yard. So cute!

 

When I was a teenager I had a poster on the wall in my room of a beautiful woodland waterfall  that said “You will never be lonely if nature is with you”.  The picture reminded me of the time we spent as a family at Tillman’s Ravine exploring the forest on steamy summer weekend afternoons when I was younger.  It was a place my mother loved, with waterfalls, wood plank footbridges over streams, and little pools where lily pads grew and water bugs skittered across the top of the water.  The water was so clear you could see the rocks on the bottom and minnows swimming near the edge.  It was a cool and inviting place on a summer afternoon.  I still love being in a natural environment, and when I’m feeling stressed I often step outside for a few moments and listen to the birds chirping and the wind moving the trees, and gaze at the sky for an instant dose of calm.

               When I think about nature, I am amazed at how it all works.  Somehow it all fits together, and while it can be frightening at times, it’s never boring.  One of the more interesting things to see is the creatures that live around us.  There are plenty of birds and squirrels, there’s groundhogs and chipmunks, and rabbits.  Now and then there are deer in our yard and I’m pretty sure they are the reason I don’t get too many blooming lilies as they find them as well as the lily-like flowers on the hosta to be tasty.  One very early morning my husband went out the door to go to work and came face to face with a huge deer who was probably snacking on the nearby hosta flowers.  Even though he was on the deck   and the deer was in the yard, it was quite a heart stopping way for him to start his day. Encounters with animals are not limited to deer.  Besides the squirrel that tried to take up residence in our attic a number of years ago, there was one who laid on the deck rail shaking his tail in a threatening manner and hissing at my daughter as she tried to leave for a flute lesson.  She had to go out the back door because that critter just wasn’t going to stop.  There were times when I would be sitting in the living room with the door open and look up to find the squirrel sitting on the deck rail looking in at me. We’ve also had birds sitting there looking in, and one of the neighborhood cats used to do the same thing.  There have been times when we were on the deck in the evening and seen raccoons meander along the driveway, and one time a bear came crashing through some bushes between us and the neighbor’s house.  Foxes used to fight outside my daughter’s bedroom window at night and she said the sound they make is awful not to mention frightening in the middle of the night.  There was the carpenter bee who acted as a sentry by hovering in your face as you approached the door and then flew away after a second or two, we’ve had the occasional praying mantis, and of course my arch nemesis icky Vicky the spider and her descendants.  Yes, nature is never boring.

               The weather is another aspect of nature that fascinates us.  We talk about it, have channels devoted to it, complain about it, and celebrate it.  It seems to defy explanation at times, like how it can be pouring rain from dark clouds at my house, yet I can see that just about a half mile away there is a beautiful sunset over the lake.  Rainbows are always amazing and social media lights up with pictures everyone takes of them after a big rainstorm.  Likewise if there is hail on a hot summer day you can see many videos and pictures in your newsfeed.  When it snows in places that usually don’t get it, or someplace gets snow measured in feet instead of inches it is newsworthy, as well as ice storms which are terrifyingly dangerous yet beautiful in the sun when they finish.  Who can resist a picture of fog as it lifts off a body of water, or a deep blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds highlighted by sunbeams? We can hear the rumble and roll of thunder in the summer or even in the winter during a snow storm. Weather and nature continually changes and keeps us on our toes.

               I find time spent contemplating my immediate outdoor surroundings to be a good way to take a little mental break from the stresses and worries of life.  Wondering how it is birds can fly, butterflies and bees know where flowers full of nectar are, and squirrels remember where they have buried acorns they collected months before can take you out of yourself for a few minutes.  You might never get the answer, but that’s not really what’s important.  What’s important is to get a little vacation for your brain, feel a part of something bigger, and find momentary peace.

Letting Go

 

      I’ve said good bye to many things this past year, as we all have due to the pandemic.  I think what I miss most is the routine of the weekdays.  Since I was (still am) unable to work as Hillary has no day program to attend, we have no set routine like we did when I had to get her ready to leave the house either for the bus or to drop her off before I went to work.  I miss the routine of finding a parking space, and saying “good morning” to my coworkers, then rushing through errands after work and getting home in time to change, knock back a cup of coffee, and welcome Hillary home.  There is no reason for rushing now, no sense of urgency to my time.  It was nice at first, now it makes for a long day.  I miss how things were, but I doubt I will be doing all that again.  Things are and will be different; it’s one of life’s adjustments.

               In addition to saying good bye to coworkers, I lost my Aunt Audrey and my brother Dan; we laid their ashes to rest this month, my aunt with many of my cousins present, and my brother with just my remaining brothers and our children and spouses gathered at the grave.  I have yet to delete either one of them from my contact list on my iPhone.  I just can’t bring myself to do it.  It’s hard to say goodbye to people who are important in our lives, people we have spent our whole lives loving and knowing were there in the background most of the time, but still there. I have pictures and my memories of them, but if you’ve ever lost anyone you understand it’s just not the same as having them here on Earth somewhere.  I will miss having the possibility of seeing or speaking with my aunt ever again and sending her cards, I will forever miss my brother at the Thanksgiving table because we always were seated next to each other.  I miss his sense of humor and his intelligence, and reminiscing about our childhood with him.  He was a gentle soul.

               We all have dreams that we have to let go of, and ones that have to be altered.  My childhood dream was to be an artist.  I loved painting, drawing, working with clay and doing crafts, and thought I was going to go to art school when I grew up.  I remember one year for Christmas I got a table top easel, a huge set of watercolor paints and brushes, and watercolor paper.  I spent many hours painting landscapes and pictures of the sky.  I also had pastels and charcoal pencils and a sketch pad. I loved drawing horses, learning how from a book, and I used to look out my bedroom window at my little desk and sketched what I saw.  There was a little wooden shed across the street and I remember sketching that.  I wish I still had those pictures, but once I grew up, they were put aside and eventually discarded.  My dreams changed from being an artist to other pursuits such as getting married and starting a family.  I still sketch from time to time, and every once in a while go to a paint and sip event.  I still enjoy playing at being an artist; it keeps me in touch with that childhood dream.

               Life changes, and changes us in the process.  The things that happen around us help shape who we are, and to some extent how we are.  I think our memories and feelings of nostalgia enable us to remember how we were and how far we’ve come.  Saying “so long” to the past and reaching for the future moves us through our lives which always seems to me to be bittersweet.

Love Of Reading

 

    Here's an eclectic little collection of some of the books I have.  Three were written by my younger brother, a few are by people I count among my friends.  The small books were given to me either by my daughter or a friend who moved away several years ago, and of course there are a few Dr. Seuss just for fun!

               I know I’ve said it before, but I love reading.  The one good thing about the pandemic and staying home is that I have had lots of time for reading books!  Since the library reopened, I’ve been able to take out stacks of books to enjoy; before I got my new glasses I was taking out the large print editions because it was straining my eyes so much with the old prescription.  My new glasses mean I can read any size print without getting a headache or blurry vision from eye strain.  I don’t like audio books, I prefer to put my own spin on the words, hear the character’s voices in my head and not someone else’s interpretation.  I also prefer turning actual paper pages, so I’m not a fan of reading on a screen.  Although, when Hillary was hospitalized for a month last fall I read a lot on my phone.  You can’t really cart a bag of books around the hospital when you’re caring for a loved one who is quite ill and gets moved from one department to another with some frequency.  So reading on my phone was better than nothing while she was sleeping in between doctors and nurses trying to heal her.  I have some favorite authors who I go back to from time to time, sometimes rereading books because I enjoy them so much.  I also like to try new authors, and occasionally a new genre.  Sometimes I learn something new, or get a new perspective on things.

               Recently I read an older book about 500 years of American history.  It began with how people first appeared on the North American continent.  The most surprising thing I learned was that there was such a thing as giant beavers!  I never heard of them before, they roamed the continent from Florida to Alaska along with mastodons and sabre tooth tigers during the ice age.  They know this because of bones archeologists found.  I had no idea, and when I told my husband, he was not surprised and immediately found a picture of them online, as if it was something he looked up every day.  It seems as if they were about the size of one of our current black bears.  What I found frightening is imagining how large and sharp their teeth would be, and what large dams they would build.  Can you imagine the size of their flat, wide beaver tails?  Wow! The rest of the book didn’t offer much insight into anything else it discussed—the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, JFK’s assassination, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, and the story of the Mayans among other mysteries of history.  It was interesting and nice to step away from my usual diet of murder mysteries. 

               Currently I’m reading a book that was my mother’s.  It’s “James Herriot’s Dog Stories”, a collection of his short stories having to do with dogs he encountered in his veterinary practice in Darrowby, England.  It’s a book I’ve read before, and it’s a comfortable positive group of stories that is perfect with my morning tea at the beginning of the day.  I’m also working my way through “The Pen Commandments” by Steven Frank, which is a guide for beginning writers but I’m using it as a nice way to review basic grammar and writing techniques.  It’s not as dry as a text book as he illustrates his points with stories from his classroom and students.  It’s good to pick up when I have a few minutes.  I have a book in my next to be read pile that I just bought, it’s a thriller by an author I am unfamiliar with—Paula McLain—and the title is “When the Stars Go Dark”. I can’t wait to have time to start it, maybe this afternoon.  I love the delicious anticipation of a new book to read!

               Reading has always been a pleasure for me, and a favorite way to spend some free time.  Losing myself in a book is also like a little vacation for my mind and a great way to step away from some of the everyday worries we all seem to have as our constant companions. With nice weather finally here, I can combine it with spending time outside—perfect!

        Some flowers I planted in pots, and my little collection of garden friends that I keep on the shelf on the deck rather than in a garden since we garden in pots because it's less work.  Yup, a little lazy here!  I like to relax on the deck with a book and a cool drink on hot summer afternoons.

May and Mom

 

         Here it is the middle of May already! This year the months seem to be flying by at breakneck speed.  This month is busier for me than I’ve been in a year.  We had Mother’s Day, we’ll end with Memorial Day, and in between I have 2 funerals to attend, (first for my aunt who passed earlier this year, and second for my brother who passed last June---dying in the pandemic doesn’t lend itself to gathering together in a timely manner to celebrate the life of a loved one), and my niece’s college graduation which will be live streamed so friends and family might watch.  So, there are a mix of good and sad events; a bittersweet month.  It is also the month my father passed 24 years ago, and my mother’s birthday. It is on my mother’s birthday that we will be celebrating the life of my aunt, her sister, who was the last of the 7 siblings to go.  I’d say, though, that overall the focus this month is on Mother’s Day.

         When I think of my mother I think of her shoes.  My mother always wore loafers for every day running around whether it was doing chores around the house or walking to the store for bread, milk, and the daily newspaper, or playing a game of softball with us kids.  For church and things such as PTA meetings she wore low dressy heels, and later when she returned to the work force she wore the heels as well.  She didn’t wear sneakers, as far as I can remember, until I had moved out and started building my adult life, when she took up walking for exercise.  When I see a pair of loafers it takes me back to my childhood, and one particular softball game.

         We lived across from the “new” elementary school which featured a large field in front with a crushed white stone path running down one side of it for all the kids in our end of the neighborhood to get to the school.  It is in this field, usually as the sun began to set in the summer, that we had our little family softball games. My 3 brothers, my mom and dad and I were all the players.  I remember it as being fun and laughing a lot.  This one particular time my mother was in the outfield and one of my brothers hit the ball into the air and it landed on my mother’s face, knocking the lens out of her glasses.  It must not have been hit very hard because I just remember my mother laughing, holding her hand over her eye and looking down saying that she lost her lens.  I’m sure that was the end of the game and we retired to the porch for glasses of her good homemade lemonade, (a pitcher of which was always in the refrigerator during the summer), after my father put the lens back in place.  We had so much fun together, and my mother wore her loafers through it all.

         I think that the greatest gift my parents gave me is the ability to laugh, and happy childhood memories. In May, and especially on Mother’s Day, I like to remember those good days.  Some of my favorite family pictures are ones in which my mother is laughing.  That’s how I remember her, always.  

This is my favorite photo of my family, taken the Easter before my first child was born, although it is absent my husband.  My sister-in-law is to the left of my mother, my 3 brothers and I on the right and my father in the chair. My brother who passed last year is the tall one on the right. I love this because we are all obviously laughing at something, probably a smart alecky comment one of us made.  My mother is full out laughing.