BS: The simple pleasures of high summer

Subject: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Janie
Date: 26 Jul 12 - 10:15 PM

Sitting outside at night, especially late night, listening to the bugs.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: gnu
Date: 26 Jul 12 - 10:21 PM

Yes, love it. Love all the sounds and sights... sky, animals...

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 12:00 AM

Sometimes, but other times all it is mosquitoes!**bg**

I do love early in the morning this time of year, though...birds are all busy, the dogs are playing and I can give thanks for the day as the sun rises over the Grand Mesa. Pretty nice.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 01:23 AM

For the last week+, Juneau, Alaska, has been, if not balmy, at least really nice to walk in in the evenings.

Today it has been hot. Officially it reached 75F, but it felt MUCH hotter. Tourists were red faced and dripping- poor things had their sweaters and jackets tied around their hips.

And my little hairless dog got a little sun burnt. He wasn't with me - a friend of mine had him with her dogs - and his back is quite pink. I'll put extra lotion on him tonight.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 01:33 AM

Sunsets....aaaah!

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 05:44 AM

Home grown tomatoes.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 06:26 AM

A chilled glass of rosé on the patio while a last blackbird sings before sleep, bats whisk past the roof eaves, and the sky deepens from blue to pink to purple.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 06:33 AM

Did someone say "high"? Look out, here comes Bobert.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 08:37 AM

Yes, Janie, home-grown tomatoes. I freeze some and use them for cooking in the winter.

Unfortunately, this has been a bad year for heat and drought. The corn crop is burning up, and this will probably affect food prices. If there's something you can give up, now would be a good time to start saving.

Will, you mentioned blackbirds. The singinf of blackbirds, either by day or by night, is one of my favorite things about life across the pond.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 09:02 AM

Blackbirds - first to sing at dawn - last to sing at dusk.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Becca72
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 09:20 AM

I had an "ahhhhhh" moment the other day, cruising down the highway driving the car I love, radio cranked to an awesome song, windows and moonroof all wide open..80° and sunny with the smell of the ocean. It doesn't get too damn better than that.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Janie
Date: 27 Jul 12 - 09:14 PM

Standing barefoot in a squishy mud puddle in red clay soil after a short and fierce summer storm, feeling the smooth, soft mud ooze up between your toes.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 09:06 AM

The sweet smells of dew on the grass, the first browning of the ferns, the @&$! weeds in the garden, oh, how I love this time and place.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: G-Force
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 12:49 PM

Waking up really early, yet finding it's already broad daylight, and warm enough to wander downstairs naked to make a cup of tea.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 02:31 PM

Strolling along the promenade by the sea at Sheringham. Watching all the people passing by with their children and dogs. Everyone relaxed and smiling. Then fish and chips. Perfect.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Megan L
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 03:03 PM

Yesterday it was my friends sons 12th birthday we took him and his brother for a drive up round the coast stopping at a greenhouse that has a small tea room attatched.

being boys it was beefburgers homemade with salads made from things grown organically in the greenhouses ohhhhhhhh those tomatoes were delicious.

We sat with binouculars watching the birds fly over the links and the waves crashing up the cliffs of the Brough of Birsay. I shared tales of the pressgangs missadventures in the parish including the auld man who used when he spotted them to sit down in the middle of the road holding a large boulder over his legs threatening to crush his leggs if they tried to take him. Of course he was far to old for them to be interested but the gathering crowed of women would harangue them about frightening a poor old man till they got him calmed dow. Of course by that time the locall lads were over the fields and cliffs and awa.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Jul 12 - 06:21 PM

When home the truck comes high with hay
And divers splash and sunlight dapples
And loud black clouds relieve the day
And chickens peck at sour apples
And fans drown out the drowsy word,
Then nightly sings the mockingbird
In every mode at dusk and dawn,
While sweaty Gabriel mows the lawn.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Megan L
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 04:09 AM

Today is a little overcast and quite windy what a great day for wrapping up grabbing an apple, a hunk of cheese and a bit of crusty bread and heading for the beach.

Ah but what beach shall it be, each has its own delight and being a fairly a fairly small island it depends on whether you want to have a bracing or a sheltered walk.

Having decided on bracing (there is nothing like the seaside wind to blow away cobwebs) the choice is now whether I want to find a neuk to sit down and watch birds or go hunting for groatie buckies at warbeth. Groatie Buckie is the norther Scottish term for the unspotted cowrie they are usually small between one and two centimeteres in length and finding one is considered a harbinger of good luck.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 04:36 AM

The West of Ireland doesn't do balmy or sitting out late and when the wind finally gets it's day off the midges come out in their millions.

Going out into the garden to pick berries, strawberries, raspberries yellow and red, red, black and white currant, goose berries for breakfast or desert, while it lasts, is definitely one of the great bonuses of life.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 06:24 AM

Sheringham had a Harley Davidson rally while we were there. About a hundred of these magnificent (and valuable) bikes were parked side-by-side all down the main street. Their tattooed and leather-clad owners were proudly striding about, or having tea and scones in the local teashops. There's always something interesting to see at Sheringham in the summer! We also saw two cormorants perched on the breakwater beacons. And a man with the fattest and most enormous tummy I'd ever seen, and he only wore a pair of shorts! Grooo!

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: ranger1
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 07:15 AM

Watching the now nearly-grown osprey chicks testing out those mighty wings and getting better at flight with each passing day. Poking in tide pools with a bunch of children and showing them that there are wonders to be found, if you know how to look. And getting paid to do both.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 12:10 PM

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 01:54 PM

The HUGE Dragon Flies.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 02:04 PM

Sitting on the deck, watching all the birds go by.

Winter will too soon come again.

Sitting in the house watching tv re-runs.

(At couch potato age)

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: CupOfTea
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 04:20 PM

I woke up this morning and smelled August in Cleveland Heights. I don't know all of what in particular makes this so distinctive, but if I'd awakened from a coma not knowing the date, I'd have said August-September. It's the smell, the feel of air on your skin, the angle of light through the windows... subtle things about living over half a century in the same half mile area, with a house always facing west give you an almost instinctive sense of place. The mornings when those cool night transition into hot days are what I'd like the world to feel like always.

Ok, so the calendar says it's still July, but that full summer threshold has been passed. The first Ohio peaches are coming in. I love this part of the year best, and the feeling of well-being that enveloped me this morning came from all those subtle time-of-year clues blowing in through the open window. All the romantic poets notions of "air like wine" and a "soft summer" and all sorts of flowery terms for this - they're all true.

Yes, we've got a drought and all the unwatered lawns are tan. I don't imagine the farmers are having a good time of it & I lost all my beloved day lilies to the herd of deer infesting my yard, but this is still the best time for an early morning or evening on the porch with instrument in hand.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 06:14 PM

I live part way up a wooded hill. Early in the morning, the morning light is pooling in the field at the foot of the hill and you can see the glow through the early morning mist between the tree trunks. It's truly magical. The upper story of the hardwood forest is still dark and the morning sun hasn't yet reached the house.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Joe_F
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 09:19 PM

E. M. Forster, Berkshires (western New England), 1947:

Now it was high summer. The little spring from which I fetched water every day had already begun to flag. The meadows were full of flowers -- ox-eye daisies, black-eyed susans, orchids, and an under-carpet of creeping jenny; the meadows sloped down to a brook where the farm hands bathed. There were swallow-tail butterflies and fritillaries, and the bobolink, a very agreeable bird, skipped from post to post caroling, and another bird, the phoebe, repeated "phoebe, phoebe, phoebe," whence its name. At night there were fireflies to remind us that this was in the latitude of Madrid. Thunderstorms did not disconcert them, and I would watch their flash vanish in the superior brilliancy of lightning, and reappear. Some of them flew at the level of the grass, others across the curtain of birch trees. They were extraordinarily bright; it was a good year for fireflies, and the memory of them sparkling in the warm rain and the thunder is the latest of my American impressions, and the loveliest.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 09:52 PM

Oh, what I'd give for one hour of sitting on the front porch enjoying the sounds of summer... Summer here in Wingate, NC. has been a sumabich... Blown trees all over us... Pond going dry and stenkin'... The pool hasn't been clear one day in spite of every effort to make it clear... This summer...

...sucks!!!

Big time...

B:~(

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: EBarnacle
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 11:53 PM

Fresh local corn, blueberries and strawberries! Picked 'em myself.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 04:06 AM

This entire thread is perfectly delightful. If all the posts were joined up together, it would read like a very lyrical poem. (Or song perhaps?)

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Janie
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 05:48 AM

The weekly local farmers market, with all the wonderful and colorful displays of too many varieties of too many veggies to be able to make easy choices, not to mention the pie makers and bread bakers, and the freshly made soft cheeses from which to choose.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: frogprince
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 09:00 PM

Our kin/hosts here on Martha's Vineyard left my wife & me on the beach while they went to pick up other family from the ferry. We had time to stroll well down the beach for a swim by ourselves. Guess what we wore to go swimming.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Janie
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 11:07 PM

Loverly!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: KT
Date: 01 Aug 12 - 01:07 AM

As the setting sun fills the air with a golden/pink glow, a gentle breeze coaxes an almost imperceptible sway out of the towering pines and offers a refreshing respite from the sizzling heat of the day; cicadas relinquish the stage for a solo performance of a lone robin, whose nightly song bids peace to all, and a restful slumber.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jun 16 - 05:34 PM

Is it high summer yet?

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Jun 16 - 05:54 PM

a Honeywell Max Power Turbo Fan under my computer desk
angled up to cool my crack 'n' tackle.... 😎

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Jun 16 - 06:18 PM

Our kin/hosts here on Martha's Vineyard left my wife & me on the beach while they went to pick up other family from the ferry. We had time to stroll well down the beach for a swim by ourselves. Guess what we wore to go swimming.

This is what can happen in Scotland:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-36605619

I think of this as the time of year when filmy dresses with minimal or no bras start appearing.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jun 16 - 02:54 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Jun 16 - 02:44 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Jul 17 - 03:55 PM

Just looked at Jack's article link
about red kites lining their nests
with the clothes that people leave on the beach. Gracious.

If those raptors could talk, what are they saying, I wonder.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Charmion
Date: 05 Jul 17 - 08:26 AM

High summer in Ottawa is hot and steamy, and people wear whatever they can get away with, which is really not much -- or a lot, depending on how you care to interpret that phrase. It's the polar (sorry) opposite of the depth of winter, when nobody cares how silly their hat looks if it keeps their ears from freezing. Likewise, in July, the rule is to complain about others' attire only when it actually breaks the law.

The greatest pleasure of high summer here is strawberries, picked fully ripe and brought to market without ever having encountered a refrigerator. The heady aroma of boiling strawberry jam wafts from the kitchen window of memory ... It's a good thing that the eye of memory is averted from the cook, who wears an apron and not much else while the preserving kettle and the canner belch steam around her head and the sweat drips off her nose.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Jul 17 - 08:34 PM

Carrying around an optional warm layer
in order not to be chilled
by indoor refrigerated air.

And then shucking it off OUTDOORS.
Can't do that in the winter.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: Janie
Date: 06 Jul 17 - 12:46 AM

Fierce thunderstorm mid evening, followed by the cool-down and a chorus of katydids.

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 06 Jul 17 - 05:16 PM

All these things and more. My favorite season. The warmth. The long days. I walk along in my local park and see white egrets flying and dancing with each other, a blue heron at the water's edge, dragonflies skitter along the pond, barn swallows dance on a twig, and a snapping turtle moseys amid the catfish. This is all in New York City,btw, so's ya know. It's lovely. The breeze feels like a lover's touch. The beach and the forest and the river.

I'm a summer baby, it's true, so perhaps that's why it's my favorite season.

Celebrate - the best things in life are free!

Subject: RE: BS: The simple pleasures of high summer
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Jul 17 - 11:44 AM

ah, talking of strawberry shortcake: enjoyed some on the Fifth of July, when the hoopla was over. OH YES.