Tag: seasons

sunset

on a warm summer’s evening . . . 9

etikser

When I was a kid, it seemed like summer got a running start at the 4th of July, and then reached its pinnacle in August. I remember August bringing the hottest days of the season, and the warmest, most restless nights. When you kicked the sheets and struggled for sleep with windows left open for cross-ventilation…crickets chirping outside and few cooling breezes to bring relief. It was the time for learning to swim underwater, for cook-outs with family friends (picnic tables, the public grill, and plumes of smoke that smelled of burgers, hot dogs, and charcoal). It was an August day when we went to the lake in the mountains. Surely, it was an August night when they wrote the song Summertime.

Now I’m all grown up, and then some, and August feels more like a cheerless transition.

But…the trees stand green, and the grass and shrubs hold strong, in the face of a merciless June and July. You can’t see it in the picture, but horses ran along a nearby fence, and stalks and stalks of green corn poised robust and plentiful enough to make my paltry six already-picked and drying corn plants at home stand a bit taller with envy. Sunset at 7:30 on a late August evening still has a bit of summery grace.

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On a warm summer’s evening … simple words … my favorite kind of words … packed with age-old nuance and memories.
Credit:  The Gambler, performed by Kenny Rogers (1978), written by Don Schlitz.

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© Etikser. All Rights Reserved.
All photos and images here are my own.
They may not be used elsewhere or reblogged.

yellow

happy spring!

etikser
yellows at their best – brilliant forsythias herald the beginning of spring


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© Etikser. All Rights Reserved.
All photos and images here are my own.
They may not be used elsewhere or reblogged.
Please visit my other blog, Clover & Ivy, https://cloverandivy.wordpress.com.
I post mostly nature photos there.

feelings

comfort

etikser

I remember that spell when I listened to John Lennon interviews every night. It was a good spell, and it was a comfort to me. I remember when I used to walk in the evenings, and the last sun of the summer day made its way around me, through the season’s branches and leaves. It was a comfort to me. Winter nights and tall branches standing strong in the cold wind and the night sky, those were a comfort to me. Sitting outside, come July. Sitting outside late at night, the stars, and fireflies, and crickets, and me, and they’ll be a comfort. I trust it’ll all be a comfort, it’ll be a comfort  to me.

plants

timing

etikser

It started in December with Secret Santa. Secret Santa gave me a plant stand, and the plant stand made me want an indoor herb garden. Granted, I’d thought about bringing my outside herbs inside in October or November. But the plants were big, too big for inside, and I only wanted the herbs, not any outdoor bugs that might come along for the ride. In any case, the end of December was too late to think about bringing my dried-up outdoor herb plants inside.

I thought you could just go on down to that store that sells lumber and paint and plants, and pick up some herbal plants. Seems like you should be able to do that, don’t you think? Not so. They had ferns and violets and philodendron, but no herbs. Not a single one. What they had was herb seeds. I’ve never done well with seeds. Outdoors, indoors…I haven’t had success with seeds. But I had a plan, and I had that Secret Santa plant stand, and the sense of resolution that comes to us all around January 1.

So now I have these seedlings. I doubt their timing is timely. But I’m still resolute, and the little plants give me hope and inspiration.

I watered them today. They’re struggling to grow green, but they’re alive and trying to reach for the sunlight…just like the rest of us.


© Etikser. All Rights Reserved.
All photos and images here are my own.
They may not be used elsewhere or reblogged.
Please visit my other blog, Clover & Ivy, https://cloverandivy.wordpress.com.
I post mostly nature photos there.

clouds

floating

etikser

Why are clouds so much more when they hover above the open sea? Something about the color of the ocean and the blue sky and summer cotton clouds, ahead, above, and all around. The sky and the ocean, similarly infinities.

Someone’s gazing at clouds from a spot on the shore, and I wish it was me. I can almost feel it now. And I wish it was me.

2022, summer

confluence

etikser

There should be a checklist. Fireflies. Fireworks. A spectacular storm that doesn’t bring down any trees. Coffee on a fresh morning after it’s rained. A walk on the beach. A walk in the woods. Staking tomatoes. Watering plants. Treading water and lazy laughs with friends. Snapdragons. Dragonflies. Bugs and muggy nights.

The confluence? July 23rd. An evening outside when there’s still more than a few fireflies, and already, crickets chirp, as if to announce a movement towards August. Surrounded by a blend of scents from the plants I love. It’s happened before, evenings like this, and I ponder which plants disperse that heavenly fragrance.

Inside, pink coneflower cuttings drop pollen on the countertop. As my cloth wipes away the yellow powder, I detect a floral scent. Not an overdone designer aroma. But the real-deal pollen floral scent.

Some golden bits of summer to store up, as if I’m capable, and hold for some lifeless November afternoon.