Savor Every Moment: The Sounds of Summer
08/10/2015
About this time of year, I start to get almost a bit frantic . . . about summer drawing to a close. (And especially this year, when it seems that summer only just got started a couple of weeks ago.)
Even though it's still hot.
And still humid.
And the days are still long(ish).
And the fireflies are still out.
And I can still go barefoot every day.
But I can tell - at some level deep in my soul - that summer is winding down.
Rather than get down-in-the-dumps and cranky about it, I've decided to try to hold on to as much of whatever remains of summer as I can. I'm going to savor every moment. And I'm going to hold on tightly to my summer memories -- so they can get me through the long and dreary winter.
I worked out in the garden most all of the afternoon yesterday, listening to the sounds of summer all around me.
Lawn mowers.
Kids riding their bikes and laughing.
My neighbors splashing around in their pool.
Birdsong.
Wind chimes.
The blurbling of my pond.
And this . . .
Always this.
To me, the cicada "song" IS this song of summer.
I don't remember it at all from my growing-up days in Wyoming, but when I lived in Texas and now here in Michigan, the song of the cicada has filled my summers.
Yeah. Cicadas are big and kind of creepy looking. (Once I came totally unglued when toddler Erin found one of the nymph husks outside. It still looked alive -- and treacherous.) (Erin was unconcerned, by the way.)
These photos are from my backyard -- taken back in 2011 whenI spotted a cicada hanging on one of my container gardens. While I see the empty nymph husks all the time, I rarely see an actual cicada.
I just hear them.
How about you? What sounds of summer do you savor?