245. Dear reader, how did you use summer?
a sneakyart drop.
Dear reader,
In my corner of the world, summer can be slow to arrive. When it finally does, it feels like forever. Day after day - mornings, afternoons, evenings, late sunsets - it lasts as long as it takes for you to forget the chilly dawn of spring, the early dusk of autumn, the grey wretchedness of winter. Maybe that is the right length for any season - until you are convinced that it will last forever, until you are plunged irredeemably into its present, its now.
The morning air is cooler now. The sun cuts smaller arcs in the sky. Every summer I plan to do the things I missed the previous season. And afterward I wonder if it was enough. But it is never enough. Here at the cusp of another season, again it was not enough.
The SneakyArt Post is a publication of secretly drawn art of the world. Every week, I share drawings from my sketchbooks and ideas from my journey as an artist and writer.
Dear reader, what is summer like in your part of the world? How did you use this season?
I live outside of Washington, D.C., where spring is a brief explosion of flowering trees, summer alternates between suffocating, humid hot weeks and flash floods, and winter occasionally drops in for a week or two. Autumn is the best, and I cannot wait. Today it will be 97 degrees. We headed north (New England) for relief, where people complain when it’s over 80.
This summer was glorious in the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York State. Really sublime.
Last February I stood at my fifth floor window looking out over snow and ice. Endless brown trees and grey skies inspired me to dream of the warmth and color of summer. I planned to relish it when it arrived.
And so I did.
Many visits to the nearby wildlife refuge which teems with birds, fish, wildflowers and wetland creatures. Hiking along our local rail trail which passes through several farms: cornfields, cattle, horses. Also home to Beaver, Muskrat, Fox, and Deer. Great Blue Heron and so many other birds, thriving in those woods.
And now comes my favorite season, Fall. Plans have been made to ensure I experience it fully.