Summer Thoughts to Share . . .

Heat, ma'am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it

but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.

~Sydney Smith, Lady Holland's Memoir

Footpath to the Sea

oil on canvas

11 x 14

These past few weeks have been fairly brutal in the heat and humidity.  It saps one's strength, one's resolve to do anything constructive other than lay around in a droopy mood.  On the drive to work in the early morning I find myself drifting mentally into some kind of haze, steering the car as if on automatic pilot.  The only summer blossoms one sees along the highway are the intrepid cornflowers and queen anne's lace; all else has shriveled up like dried cornstalks.

Shady Lane

oil on canvas

5 x 7

I finished working on these two oils recently; they seem to evoke the sense of deep summer, of how we almost instinctively seek out shade and cool shadowy spaces to escape the heat.  My two most favorite times of the day are my first cup of coffee on the deck, sitting on the top step in the shade cast by the beach roses and hydrangeas, watching the birds at the feeder.  It's cool and one can think clearly before the day begins.

The other time of day is in the evening when once again the shadows grow and stretch across the lawns.  I sit in one of the adirondack chairs with a glass of chilled chardonnay and watch as the birds and rabbits frolic about in the shadows.  I look up and watch the clouds, thin rivers of lace overhead -- or perhaps huge Wagnerian divas roiling across the skies presaging an incoming storm.  

Tempestuous
digitally enhanced photograph

by the artist

It's odd how we complain about the snow and the cold; we complain about the heat and the humidity.  I'm beginning to think that there is about a two-week window in the spring and in the autumn when we are content!  Well, I hope everyone is enjoying at least some parts of this summer -- 

In summer, the song sings itself.

~William Carlos Williams