7.22.13  Some of the flower pots on the terrace are looking a little straggly and a few have passed away from my neglect, so I went to the local nursery in search of colorful replacements, surely to be on sale at this mid-point of summer.  I was startled to find the greenhouse bare, with just a small group of wilting Impatiens in 3 inch pots, withering away their lives on the edge of a spare table.  Thinking this must be an aberration, I went into town to a different nursery and drove past their row of empty greenhouses, doors wide open to empty glass rooms.  Everything gone.

It’s too late for more summer flowers!  I didn’t see it coming.  The roads are clogged with summer tourists and camper vans as families head out to the mountains and rivers for leisurely days in the outdoors.  Especially on week-ends, a flotilla of motor boats and sailboats stream by the house, and teenagers on jet skis break the early morning quiet on a regular basis.  Everyone’s complaining about the heat and the sudden mosquitoes.   But, I guess the signs are there.  The trees have that stillness they get once they’ve released their seeds and their job is done for the year.  Today’s weather forecast reads, “sunny days, clear nights, and smoke, of course, from the wildfires.”  And all those back-to-school flyers come tumbling out from the newspaper.

As the East is gripped by a heat wave, and weather maps show the whole country in red and orange, I guess there are a lot of people anxious for summer to begin winding down.  Here in the north country, where summer is metered out in weeks instead of months, I feel like I am just winding up.  Yesterday, i read my book in the hammock for the first time, and went out in the morning on a maiden kayak voyage, gliding in crystal clear, silent and still water.  All the time thinking, “this is the most perfect of summer days.”

Summer may be sailing on, but it is not sailing away from me.  And tonight is another supermoon over the water!