Quintessential Summer Daze

What makes a summer’s day just right?

Sunshine and heat and a tandem ride to the beach for starters…

P1110609P1110614

…a tall cool McDonald’s strawberry mango smoothie to follow,  a refreshing shower and a nap out back from happy exhaustion in the dappled seclusion of the willow…

Upon waking, juicy cold sailboat slices of watermelon till thirst is quenched and tummies tight ( :

A broiled salmon steak fished from local waters for supper and then a quiet perusal of the garden in the balmy evening and some industrious compost turning  just because making dirt is so much fun!

And at close of day a glorious billowing sky of gold and silver clouds to the west and a full arc of brilliant rainbow to the east…tying up the day as if it were a custom gift from God to us.

All these make a summer’s day just right.  What more could I ask?

But then today dawned and I couldn’t resist a little hike to a favorite ‘perch’ on the side of Scout…

And I sat and wrote and read the morning away, lapping  up the luxurious warmth of another rare summer’s day…

P1110635

And  I took pictures…

P1110649P1110650P1110653…pictures of every summery thing that struck my fancy…Well, not everything, the bumper crop of crimson huckleberries hanging daintily by the roadside I didn’t think to photograph.  I plucked little tangy handfuls and ate them instead!

Flowers everywhere are celebrating summer…

P1110658

Some with great fanfare…

P1110660

Others lollygagging about…

P1110665P1110662

The most exquisite bears thorns… she is the blackberry’s forerunner.

P1110668

And at last, home to my own flowers.

My very own first Gerber Daisy… looking artificial were it not for the rumple of wind and weather…

P1110669

 

P1110676

A quintessential summer’s day would be incomplete without the bumbling buzz of bees, hard at work while we play…

P1110679P1110681

Here’s hoping you too are enjoying the essence of summer where you are.  What makes a summer’s day just right for you?  Drop a comment in the box before you head back out the door to smell the roses!

–LS

What is Summer Made of…

What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails
That’s what little boys are made of !”
P1070981

What are little girls made of?
“Sugar and spice and all things nice
That’s what little girls are made of!”

P1080070

And what’s a lovely summer made of?

Well for starters…  

 

P1070950InlandP1070936P1070938P1070952But a summer’s not complete without a trip to visit the best product of old age…the grandbabies…

First the early morning ferry ride as sun comes up…

P1070954ferry

And by day’s end the sun is settling to its rest, and we are nearly there…

P1070969

…to meet the latest arrival to the family!

P1070975P1080102One day old

Calvin&GrandMom

P1080092

And now our summer is complete!P1080049

 

 

P1080064P1080069

P1070990P1070989

–LS

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Ps.127:3

Going, going, g-o-n-e?

P1070803

It’s that time of year…where there’s no certainty that summer won’t up and leave any given day.  There seem to be spiders everywhere spinning webs to catch the last prey of the season, basking in the sun’s gold rays as the days are already getting shorter…

P1070863

P1070915 Creatures appear in the garden munching out their life cycles…

A round of wonderfully hot days (do you call 78 degrees hot?!) have now abruptly ended.  We too have tried to take our fill of them.  What better time to hike to a quiet gem of a lake for an afternoon in our own little Eden…

P1070902

Times like these we wonder why we would ever want to live anyplace else…

P1070870 An old canoe sits by the dock for the use of hikers-by…

P1070888 

Lily pads and dragon flies are the only company to share the day…

P1070874

And we make another idyllic memory to hold us steady when the sun is gone for good and the rains return… Is summer gone?  We shall see…

P1070922

…and shall console ourselves in its return, someday…

–LS

“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Gen.8:22

P1070852