“How sweet I roamed from field to field, and tasted all the summer‘s pride.” William Blake
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
A Summer Day by Lucy Maud Montgomery
I.
The dawn laughs out on orient hills
And dances with the diamond rills;
The ambrosial wind but faintly stirs
The silken, beaded gossamers;
In the wide valleys, lone and fair,
Lyrics are piped from limpid air,
And, far above, the pine trees free
Voice ancient lore of sky and sea.
Come, let us fill our hearts straightway
With hope and courage of the day. Contd below
For those of us who live in climates with clearly delineated seasons, summer is a time to shed the baggage of winter, the rains of spring, and embrace the lightness and colors of a new season. That lightness carries over to our clothing, our meals, the spring in our step, and the cascading colors of summer blossoms popping up everywhere. Summer flowers speak to me because they are my clearest indication that all the drabness of winter is surely being replaced by a burst of color. For this week’s Photo Challenge – Summer, I’ve decided to share some of the beautiful blooming flowers I’ve seen on my path to and from the aqueduct, and some I saw on my visit to the NY Botanical Gardens last summer.
“I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year.” Edna St. Vincent Millay
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
II.
Noon, hiving sweets of sun and flower,
Has fallen on dreams in wayside bower,
Where bees hold honeyed fellowship
With the ripe blossom of her lip;
All silent are her poppied vales
And all her long Arcadian dales,
Where idleness is gathered up
A magic draught in summer’s cup.
Come, let us give ourselves to dreams
By lisping margins of her streams.Contd below
It is amazing how all that once seemed lifeless, unfurl their wings and pop up their heads in a flourish of color in the summer. I’m always nicely surprised when I come across a new planting of flowers or the return of a taller, stronger looking version of an old favorite in the summer time… When I take my walks on the aqueduct, the landscape includes homes with beautiful gardens and flowering shrubs on the pathway. My camera captures it all and several of those pictures are in this post. The white flowering shrub/tree above gives off an intoxicating perfume and each time I walk by it, I stop to inhale the fragrance and watch the bees at work.
“Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you’re signed up for a season, see it through. You don’t have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.” Jim Rohn
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer
Weekly Photo Challenge: Summer… See the bee?
III
Adown the golden sunset way
The evening comes in wimple gray;
By burnished shore and silver lake
Cool winds of ministration wake;
O’er occidental meadows far
There shines the light of moon and star,
And sweet, low-tinkling music rings
About the lips of haunted springs.
In quietude of earth and air
‘Tis meet we yield our souls to prayer.
Flowers and gardens have always been an important part of my life. From my earliest memories of my mother’s plantings, to my own efforts at gardening against all odds, I have come to appreciate the many steps flowering plants take to get from seed to vase… I appreciate the grace that protects hibernating perennials in the harsh winter and awakens them in warmer climes. So when I see a gorgeous bloom, I stop to both admire and applaud it. More below!
