Summer Time

Where's the basis for those old song lyrics, "Summer time, and the living is easy"?

Grass and weeds grow at a phenomenal pace. Some of my work deadlines are farther apart in the summer, but extra business trips eat up free time. And summer is always full of family gatherings, which are great fun. Home, work, and family commitments leave no time for my "easy living" images of reading under a shade tree or lounging in a hammock.

Actually, high humidity and swarming insects often make staying indoors more attractive. Stifling days make one wonder, "How did people survive without air conditioning?"

Those days bring to mind the less-than-good old days of sweating and fanning one's way through an un-airconditioned church service. When I think of summer afternoons of my childhood, I remember playing in the shade of mulberry trees. The summer soles of our feet were stained purple.

I love the flowers blooming beside the roads now. The roadside table is spread with Queen Anne's lace and dotted with yellow wild mustard. Floating above is the delicate hue of chicory's suspended blue porcelain.