Summer Meme...

...thanks Ruth!

Not sure of the rules, just play along if you like...but let me know if you play so I can come visit.

1.)What first tells you that summer is here?

Being a school bus driver, it’s when I’m finally off work for the summer! It’s the same feeling I used to get when school was out, as a kid. It’s that excitement and promise of fun days ahead. I’m sure you know that feeling yourself!





2.) Name five of your favorite distinctively summer habits or customs.

a. I love working in my garden…I wear this funky garden hat with fake roses on it!



b. Sitting in the glider in my rose garden and just listening to the sounds of summer with a big old glass of iced tee (hahaha...a typo...I like to golf in the summer too, but I meant "teA") that invariably gets a bug in it.
c. Waiting patiently on my deck with camera in hand, being very quiet so I can catch a photo or two of the hummingbirds that visit our feeders.
d. Going to the cabin once or twice as time allows. I show photos and roses at the fairs around here so I have to time my trips to the cabin around those events.
e. Reading a stack of books, usually classics. I love reading classics in the summer. I can visit another time, long ago.
d. Watching "Jaws" movies and "Children of the Corn". For some reason those are summer traditions with me.





3.) What is your favorite smell of summer?

Roses, lilacs (okay, I know this one is more of a spring smell) lilies and lilies of the valley.




4.) What is your favorite taste of summer?

Ice-cold-juicy-red-drippy-seedy watermelon.

5.) Favorite summer memory?

Going to the cabin for the entire summer with my mom, 3 sisters and 1 brother. We all made friends up there, got so tan without worrying about the UVA or UVB rays, spent hours upon hours in the water, fished and actually caught fish, canoed until we got bored then tipped the canoe over just to get under it and listen to how our voiced echoed. Have you ever been under a tipped-over canoe? Try it, it's fun!



6.) Extreme heat or extreme cold? Which would you choose and why?

I love the heat if I can find a shady spot to be, or a cool lake or pool. Summer comes with heat, and I love summer!





7.) What books do you plan to read for the season?

“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, “Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There”, and “The Wind In The Willows”. Do you see a trend here? These are the books I used to read as a child when I’d spend time at my grandmother’s. I still have the copies of the Alice books that belonged to my mother when she was a child, but will get new ones to read as these oldies are pretty fragile. I'm also going to read Henry David Thoreau's books "The Maine Woods", "Walden" and "Cape Cod". I haven't decided what else to read, but I have a few laying here that I've started and will probably try to finish those, too.



8.) How does the summer affect your faith? Is it a hindrance or an ally?

How can one’s faith not be affected in a positive by seeing a rose slowly open, or a nest of baby birds, or a hummingbird sipping nectar from a flower, or a bee with it’s legs full of pollen? Mother Nature is definitely an ally in making my faith stronger! Of course, all of the seasons do this for me!