Fare thee well, Summer

The crickets sang in the grasses.  They sang the song

of summer's ending, a sad, monotonous song.

"Summer is over and gone," they sang.  "Over and gone,

over and gone.  Summer is dying, dying."

The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody

that summertime cannot last forever.  Even on the most

beautiful days in the whole year--the days when summer

is changing into fall--the crickets spread the rumor of

sadness and change.

- Charlotte's Web, E.B. White -

A couple of weeks ago I took a quick trip to Wal-Mart one evening right before sunset.  There was the coolest breeze in the air, a reminder that fall was coming.  But it was so strange and out of place because we don't usually feel brisk fall air until something like October.  Though there have definitely been some 95 degree heat days, it has overall been an extremely cool summer with buckets of rain.  My grass is still alive and green, and in the five years we've lived here it's usually dead by late June.

  Late June 2012

Dead Patches of Grass

Maybe it's been our atypically cool summer that made the breeze blowing across the Wal-Mart parking lot that night bring a wistful sadness to my heart.  It made the summer feel really short; it made 2013 feel really short.  The year seems to gather speed and hasten to an end from this point on when I start measuring time in birthdays and holidays.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love fall.  Who doesn't?  I love cool breezes and the changing of the leaves and gaining an extra hour of sleep.  But for a moment, I mourned the passing of summer.

 Green, Green, Green

A Very Lush Summer