School started again on Thurs. We’ve had a touch of non-damaging frost. The leaves are starting to change color (barely). The crops are golden and ready to harvest. My garden is past its prime.

BUT I REFUSE TO ADMIT SUMMER IS ALMOST OVER.

Instead, I will dwell on some of my favorite moments of summer.

1. Sitting outside to work. Even better, sitting at the lake to write. I have a romantic image of authors… Ernest Hemmingway at Les Deux Maggots, Anne Morrow Lindbergh at the sea… so this make me feel like I am being a real writer.

2. Flowers. Especially my sunflowers. They are bright and cheerful, but again, maybe they have a connection with the artistic mind. Van Gogh painted many sunflower pictures. My research indicates he did 11 paintings exclusively of sunflowers though he also used them in the background of many other pictures. He said in a letter in 1889, ‘You may know that the peony is Jeannin’s, the hollyhock belongs to Quost, but the sunflower is mine in a way.’ I think it is mine in a way too and I will miss them when they are gone.

3. Birds and birdsong. Is there anything more cheerful than birds singing from the trees…’sweet baby’ and ‘chick-a dee-dee’?

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.
Chinese Proverb

4. Going outside without dressing in layers. In case you’ve forgotten how many layers and how long it takes to get dressed, check out this video. Be sure and note the nose wiper. 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqhgyuid2t8&feature=related

5. Cold cars. Brrr. Starting cold cars. Parking cold cars. Running from store back to cold car. Oh wait, it’s cold outside, running to cold car. Let’s just say it’s cold. I found this site http://www.athropolis.com/jokes3.htm It was so cold…  I’ll give a few quotes because they really make me wish summer would last a little (a lot?) longer. I am quoting from the site here: