Summer Recollections

A goldfinch rests and feeds in one of our front yard planters.

I anticipated the arrival of summer in earnest this year, especially after the long, severe winter of cold and snow.  But spring follows, as it always will, and soon summer makes its elegant entrance.  Now there is August left, nearly spent, but still strong – my favorite month.

School days are  imminent, college beckons, and vacations are coming to a close as Labor Day traditionally marks summer’s end.  However, there is still plenty of juice left in summer, because fall season is still almost a month away – September 22.

This year, as has been my custom, I engaged in a great deal of outdoor gardening.  Most of our plantings are already in place, and I don’t plan to expand them any more:  At least that is my thought – one never knows. There are sufficient garden beds out front, one out back near the patio, and a shrub line on the east-facing property line

Gardening, like anything that you love (or, for that matter, anyone that you love), requires attention and nurturing – you draw from your relationship with nature whatever effort you place into it. 
 

A nectar gatherer and his friend spotted at Duke Farms in Hillsborough.

It’s also a great way to get exercise and to focus one’s mind on the moment, away from the noise of the madding crowd, as well as from the addictive electronic screens that pop up everywhere like weeds of humankind which, when employed to an extreme, distract people from the realities of life.
 
I’m not a Luddite -- far from it; but balance, one of the most difficult achievements in life, seems to be the best app that I know of.

Swimming, motor trips, photography, and reading are the other activities which captured most of my summer days; although I must confess that I will never be able to read all of the books that I keep adding to my library:  it has now grown into two long rows of shelving in the middle of the basement.  (And then there is this blog!)

Thanks to the JCC for maintaining such a good swimming pool in the center of Bridgewater – couldn’t be better.

Thanks for checking in and reading.

(Click on the images for an enhanced view.)