summer

i have had the shutter sisters one word project on my mind since the annoucement of july's word: "summer" (maybe i just have summer on my mind because i finally get one). perhaps as a theme it is a bit too obvious - but it's gotten me thinking about what summer means (past & present).

i feel a richness of history having lived in the city & the country & briefly on a farm... thinking about summer makes me slightly nostalgic for days as a child; i can still smell the sweet scent of fresh mown hay & can feel the chill of the water as we floated down the river. we camped (in a tent, then a tent trailer, then a caravan), we went to camp (sang our little hearts out & swung on the biggest tarzan swing), we took family holidays that always included cousins & lakes & fresh fruit (weeping willows are still my favorite tree because of kelowna & still remember the feeling of riding in the back of auntie bobbie`s station wagon with a pile of kids eating cherries). we rode our bikes to the garden (we never wanted to weed it but we always loved to harvest) & stopped along the road to pick wild berries (why can`t i just make a pincherry pie, or can a saskatoon berry now).

those summers are still so much a part of me - i am that kid jokingly paddling a canoe the wrong way & that teenager in the too short cut-offs (why was i ever let outside in those). i am in awe of summer & i am soaking it up - it is the first time since i was 21 that i had the whole sum sum summertime off.