Summer Comfort

Growing up, there was only one way to escape the summer heat: to find the cooling shade of a big tree and hope for a breeze to accompany it. I have many memories of hanging out in the shade during the summer months - an element of the season that certainly does not get its due! Whether waiting for the right shade to descend on your front porch or finding a tree with welcoming shade, its cooling effect was a gift.

“To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.”

Jane Austen

The shade delivered a sense of calm even in the city back then. From noisy springs on wooden screen doors to restaurants with “air conditioning” signs in their windows, life was dialed down a notch, and laziness was the day’s flavor.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”

John Lubbock

There is something very pure about the cooling shade of summertime. You looked for it, and when you found it, you felt an instant gratification upon your skin. It was like walking into a music box filled with songbirds. Life was good!

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Talk soon…

G