Thursday, June 2, 2016

Summer Days


I hope  you are having a great first week of June. Its hot here like it is in July or August. We have had triple degree temps every day and it should last until next week. The people next door have pigs. I think I worry about them more than the people who own them. I know I am out in the heat because I feel better when it is hot. I know weird right? I have been working in the flowerbeds this week. I have been getting my porch all summerfied. I know not a word, but I like it. Summerfied. That is things like putting floaty things in the swimming pool, washing porch cushions, cleaning tables and lawn chairs. Making new summer pillows. Then occasionally putting my feet in the water of the pool to check if it is warm enough for me.


It pretty much looks like this around here now. Or it will by the end of next week. One of the things I like to do on hot afternoons is listen to audio books. This week it has been Wind in the Willows.  One of my favorite readers on Librivox is a man named Adrian Praetzelis. I enjoy listening to a book called
John Muir-My First Summer in the Sierra. He talks about how summer starts in California in May and doesn't end until November. He said, as John Steinbeck did that people come to California expecting it to rain like the East Coast and they are shocked by the lack of rain. Yesterday I read this:

MONTH
 MAY 2016..............0.55 
 NORMAL MAY............0.18
 DEPARTURE FROM NRML...0.37  
 PERCENT OF NORMAL....305.6
 
 Can you see that for us we are above normal.




Have you been keeping up with the news? Its been a bad week for animals and people. When I was a kid, and since I spent the better part of my days with animals. I loved the day school was out because I would spend my hot summer days observing what was around me. One of the things that drove me crazy was me a country kid verses kids who visited that were city kids. No clue that a Momma cow with a calf would knock you to kingdom come if you tried to pet its calf. Nor that if you walk up on a horse from behind your head might be removed from your shoulders in a blink of an eye. My grandpa said once he saw a horse kick a chickens head off when the chicken walked behind it.

I think there needs to be classes somewhere about how to treat wild animals. Wild animals will eat you or hurt you. Having a cell phone in your hand is not protection from wild beasts. I don't understand the mentality anymore.

 Summer is here. School is out. I love it when school is out. Don't you? I hear refrains of Alice Cooper's School's out forever in my mind. I remember those days, when the biggest thing on my to do list was getting a better tan. When I was a kid, on the last day of school my birth Mom would have a celebration planned when I got off that school bus for the last time. She would have kept the car that day. In the days when we only had one car. (My Mom didn't have her own car until I was in fifth grade.) She would take us to Woolworth's. We could pick out puzzles, coloring books and then every other Saturday afternoon, we might borrow my Grandmother's car and we would go to visit the bookmobile.

 My favorite tree, was a very old fig tree. Its limbs were huge and every where in that tree were rooms. Only ones I could see. I think  there is something nice about summer and climbing a tree and sitting up above the ground. Smelling the hot, dusty smell of the leaves. The cool feel of the bark and the sound of the wind thorough the leaves and the murmur
that goes on from the other trees that aren't as popular. I do think trees grow better with attention.

I would read the Happy Hollisters. Did anyone out there read them besides me? They were written by someone named Jerry West, which I think was close to the same as Carolyn Keene and the Nancy Drew days. I still have my whole set. I still love them. The terrible bad kid named Joey Brill still sends shivers down my spine. But really he wasn't that bad as I go and read them again.

Summer. I love the days when life seems to slow down. When the sky is blue and I remember the things that make me happy about summer. Oh and my birth Mom, on the first day of school, she would sit on the end of the porch and cry because she would miss us so much when we were gone. The first eleven years of my life were perfect. I only hope that someday my kids will remember their summers like I remembered mine. I wish my grand kids, had dirt roads to roam, time to watch frogs snap bugs out of the air, frog tongues really are long. To never be in a hurry and time to imagine and dream and read books on the limbs of trees.

Happy June!

~Kim~

“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

13 comments:

Angela said...

Thank you from a middle aged gal for helping me to remember what it felt like to have a long, lazy summer in front of me. Smile...

peggy said...

Your descriptions of summer bring back lots of memories for me, almost like being back there again. I am sad kids now will never know summers as such. It is nice to have air-conditioning though. Your flower pictures are so pretty. The zinnias knock me out. Wish mine would come up.

Pom Pom said...

Yay for summer pleasures! I had to buy The Happy Holisters! Can't wait to read it! Now go float in the pool!

Gail said...

Your wish for your grandchildren would be my wish for me.

Joy said...

Hi Kim, I really like reading your descriptions of your childhood summers. You are a good writer, you know that don't you? I remember climbing onto the book mobile in the summer, it's one of my fondest memories. I had good summers too when I was growing up. Not everything was good that happened in my life, but there were some memorable events that kids now days won't get to experience. We spent most of our time outside, playing in trees, playing with pets, roaming the woods, playing in a creek. For me, the last day of school was like being freed from jail! And when I'd see the yellow school bus in September, I could have just cried. I loved being home with my mom. Your flowers are really pretty, and yes, I noticed people think wild animals will react just like tame ones... not so.

Christine said...

Oh Kim! I so want that for my kids, to remember wonderful happy fun filled summer days! Being in the country is one of the best places to grow up!
Hope the pool is nice this weekend!

TexWisGirl said...

i am glad you enjoy the heat because it sounds like you have plenty.

acorn hollow said...

I could not take that heat I love the warmth but 80's are good for me.
Cathy

Gumbo Lily said...

I sure enjoyed this post about summer and the wonder that living in the country brings. I grew up in a small town and my summers centered around the outdoor public swimming pool. Loved it. Five of my eight grands live in the country and they appreciate all those little nature-ly things. The other three townie grands still are pretty observant of nature and the great outdoors.

Your mom sounds like she was a wonderful, thoughtful woman who was in love with her children. You are blessed. ~Jody

Kim said...

I'm like Cathy, mid 80's are enough for me. Your flowers are stunning. I planted a few more tonight. We had a frost last night. Can you believe it?

Three Sheep Studio said...

Beautiful post.
There is just something about a long lazy summer that is enticing ! I remember walking to a small "mom and pop" store for snow cones, during the summer. And if we didn't have money for a snow cone - no worries - we passed a cemetery on our way, we would collect any glass bottles that were tossed along the road. They were valuable and we turned them into the little store to retrieve their "deposit" money. Always enough for a snow cone or two !
Loving summer !
Rose

Debbie said...

beautiful wishes for your grands, life is different now, but it is different for each generation. i'm happy my kids grew up when the did, we didn't have cell phones until they were 12 and 13 and even then, only i had one. they got theirs when they went off to college. things have progresses quickly!!

i have always loved summer, but now i have trouble with the heat....

i thought you were going to talk about the gorilla when you started taking about wild animals....such a sad story!!!!

Janettessage.blogspot.com said...

I love this post in so many ways...thanks for walking me down memory lane. I can hear my grandfather saying the same things...and yes, where is the common sense. I too, love summer. Benjamin got out on Thursday and we both are so excited. It is different from when I home schooled, not better, just different. We are ready for a different type of learning...........nature will be the biggest part of our summer. Enjoy, enjoy your family and those grandchildren, reading and creating. Fun post