"...the sweetness that hovers in August."

August. The summer's 'last hurrah'. When I was growing up I lived in Oklahoma & August was my least favorite month of the year, mostly because of the sweltering heat & energy sapping humidity. But here in South Dakota where I have lived for almost forty-two summers, I have come to love the feeling of languor that accompanies this softer, summer month.                      We have had our own sultry & oppressive days at the first of the month. It is sometimes breathless. But even when they are breath-taking, literally, the days are hushed, the wind, silent,  & everyone seems to move more leisurely, even traffic seems to be slower-paced, as if we are trying to hold on to the kite's tail of summer & make it last a little longer, not ready to relinquish our hold on the beautiful, delicious, summertide season in which we don't need permission to be carefree, idle, even lazy. It just goes with the month of August. Now, my days are usually full & there's always still plenty to do & yes, responsibility calls & I have to answer...

                       The beginning of canning season. & so good to eat too! The last word in sweet & 'run down your chin' juicy!

                         

                 
       & there's still plenty of garden work left to do.

Aren't these little beauties?!   

A simple country pleasure to me is fresh, warm, vine-ripened, tomatoes, sliced & put on a bologna (I know, but I have never out grown my love for bologna! Or peanut butter & jelly for that matter!) sandwich with mustard & lettuce, a glass of freshly brewed iced tea,

a shade tree & sunshine,

a good book to read, usually Gladys Taber, Jan Karon or join Hercule Poirot in solving 'who did it'! 🧐👀

Now that's a lazy &  perfect, summer afternoon for me.

"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon...to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." Henry James

& they are froth with imagination too, don't you think? Dreamy, August dreaming...

 It has been a very dry summer mostly. We have done everything to encourage rain, such as washing our vehicles, leaving the windows open on our vehicles, having a picnic. Other good things to do are going for a motorcycle ride & hanging laundry out on the line. So far, none of these tactics have worked. 

The fly season is upon us with a vengeance now. (Death to all flyrants!) & then there are the ants that have taken up residence in  my kitchen as I discovered one day in a newly poured pot of honey. Oh my gosh! Double yuk there. & there has been an  ever-increasing population of mice which have not only infiltrated all kinds of foodstuffs, but have penetrated the walls, & excavated tunnels into my closets which I thought were mouse proof! I keep moving things around to different storage places that I think mice can't get into, but they are pretty clever, these Einsteinian mini rodents that travel around in their little mini mouse vans in the walls & ceiling. That's what it sounds like! They stop at intervals to picnic on wood, insulation, whatever they can find, that sounds just like a mini buzz saw. We have cats that work at night to deter the mouse ventures & what is done in the undercover of night is blissful ignorance. I still can't bring myself to let the cats gang up on one if I see it though. To coin the old-fashioned British phrase, that's just not cricket. So, I have an ongoing love/not love relationship with mouses. For all of the vandalism they do, they are still so adorably cute. 🐭 This is going to be hard to believe, but in one of my daughter's & my 'catch & release' programs, my daughter was holding a ziploc bag in the path of  mousie along the top of a curtain. At first it resisted, but then, it backed up, wiggled it's mousie bottom, &  ran & took a flying leap into that bag! This is the truth! It was a perfectly executed swan dive! The daughter took him out to the 'forest' in back of the house where he scampered off, or could have done a u-turn & just followed her back to the house to play the game again. My husband thinks it's the same mouse that we catch & release. I have to say my daughter is very innovative in the C&R program. 

Ka-uuute!!
Of course, it's not just in August we have these little, furry vermin. But it just seems, they are on the rise. Maybe because of the dryness. I don't know. But as with everything else in our lives, we have to put on our 'He A-Rose' tinted glasses & look for the daily loads of benefits all around us. For instance, the Black-eyed Susans are in full bloom now. I love bouquets of Black-Eyed Susans! 

I love to watch our horses grazing on a lazy summer afternoon.

("Hello, Dolly...🎵", that's really her name!)  It makes me feel comfortably drowsy & lulls me into a pleasant nap. Then picnic suppers (we rarely eat dinner before six these August days) of salads, fresh from the garden zucchini squash, dipped in an egg mixture & flour & fried golden brown, with sides of ripe, red tomatoes, crisp slices of cucumbers, & charcoal grilled hamburgers, fresh corn on the cob. Man! Love that August produce! & for dessert, going for ice cream followed by a warm summer evening drive. & then the clear, cool, August nights, perfect for star-gazing. We see many satellites & falling stars are always exciting. Conversation is in whispers then, so quiet & almost reverent. 

Some other things I love is walking barefooted in the cool grass, watching the enchanting lightening bugs in the grove of trees. I love it when it rains in the sunshine, & the dusk when the bunnies come out on our back lawn & nibble the grass & don't seem to be afraid of me at all. You can barely see them because their brownness blends in so well with the background. Dusk bunnies! 

I love the late August thunderstorms which are not as fierce as they are in early summer, tamed down a bit but just as refreshing, even invigorating. 

Natures own fireworks! 😲

I love the song of the cicadas. (We called them locusts when we were growing up & didn't know better. ) You know summer is waning when you hear the cicada choirs.

The tiny little frogs have made their debut also. Mini-Mum, Mini-Scule, & Mini-Ature. 😁 (I found those names. Cute, huh!)

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

We saw the first Hummingbird Moth of the season too the other day. So interesting!

& the end of summer's blackberry bounty, Queen of summertime desserts,

Blackberry Cobbler!

😋😋😋😋😋😋😋

This month has just been full of 'daily loadeths' blessings. Sometimes I have to purposely look for them. Sometimes they come in disguises. Sometimes they slap me 'upside the head"!   From the old song on "Holiday Inn", "I've got plenty to be thankful for", this month of August my cup runneth over. Because when we set our hearts to be thankful, our joy antennas  will be up & gathering in more joy. Just like August is the time to reap June's sowing, also,

"Thankfulness is the soil in which joy thrives." 

By the way, here are some definitions of the word 'August'.

"magnificent or majestic", & "observing the times", "profoundly honored", to name a few. 

To me, August is announcing the gentle ending of one season & making room for the next, very sweetly towards the end & almost unobserved & yet observing that it's time is entering its' finale. Kind of like going from a full blown expression of laughter to a soft smile. Magnificent, majestic, observing....

BUT !!!

 as we pass third base & come into the home run of August, grab the tail of the kite of summer, & - 

"Carpe Diem"!!! or....live this day!! "This is the day that the Lord has made..." this magnificent, majestic, profound, observing, hovering, summer August day! "...let us rejoice & be glad in it!"

and...

"Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August."

(Denise Levertov)

Raintree Perk of the Day
"I love that I live in a world where there are Augusts!"   

Joy unspeakable & full of glory!