The air has the first feel of summer coming to and end.  The evenings are shorter, the air is crisp and the mornings are a bit cooler.  This summer has not really been one I have enjoyed.  I spent most of the time recuperating from foot surgery in a large black boot, unable to walk.  I almost feel cheated, because there have not been any long walks at the beach or sitting in the sand building sand tunnels and whatever with my grandchildren.  I missed making those memories with them and for myself. 

One of my sweet granddaughters started kindergarten this week and I thought about her summer ending so quickly.  School always changes the face of a day and here I am still trying to cling onto the remaining strands of the summer. 


As a child summer was meant for summer vacation and spending time with my mother's family in Idaho and Utah.  Summer was haying season and my father took his vacation so he could help his cousin and brother-in-law with haying.  I loved the farm, I thought it was the most wonderful place in the whole world.  With cows, chickens, and horses, it was a world apart from my city life.  I especially loved my aunt and uncle and their family.  It was special too because my mother was much happier here than at home and so for one month of every year this different mother presented herself and I loved it.  My boy cousins were close to my age so I was their tag along, and the person they teased mercifully  I loved them more than they ever imagined.  I still am stirred to memories when I drive through farming communities and smell hay or cows, it makes those memories alive and real.

As I write I guess the one thing I want to give my children and grandchildren is summer memories, ones that will stir their hearts when they are older and people who they loved are no longer here and they still long for those times..