Holding on to Summer

The harvest season is in full swing. Sunny days and this beautiful lake can lure you into believing it’s still summer, but I can feel the chill in the air. The first sneak peek of the color season just appeared. This is still swimming weather in my book. When the air and water are roughly the same temperature, it’s pretty great and kinda my favorite.

I’ve been longing for adventure and Ed has the best nose for exploring new places. The wild places call me. I’m obsessed with all the yellow. Yellow goldenrod and the last of the sunflowers and giant marigolds. In the patty pan squash and fresh corn. Morning sun feels different, so does golden hour just before sunset, and a bonfire just sits different when you need it to take the chill off. I can smell it in the lake water, in late cut grass and through the Jordan Valley pine. Lake Superior will throw tempers and toss the waves and rocks to me.

We are in the last light of summer and I’m going to make it last. I’m going to make a batch or two of peach butter, pear butter and some apple butter before it’s all done. I’m running the rivers just like the fish soon will. I’m checking every day. I’m playing hide and seek with the deer and their copper velvet coats. I’m painting like crazy with a late summer palette. Prussian blue, yellow ochre and a burnt sienna–just like what I see all around me.

It’s a feast for my senses and I’m racing to take in the last gifts of this season down to my toes. The long night is coming. I’m holding on to the last summer light.