“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” -Ashley Smith
Tag: summer
Growing Up California
No, I didn’t grow up in California, but it was in growing up that I fell in love with California. The summer of age twelve, I spent a month in San Diego. A week of that month was at Ocean Beach. At an impressionable age, on-the-cusp of my teen years, California left its mark in my life.
That summer wasn’t easy. My parents had separated. Southern California was our my escape. I didn’t have to worry about my family or the changes that were taking place. All my troubles washed away in the Pacific.
At the end of summer, I went back to my home in the Oklahoma countryside, where my accent wasn’t cute anymore and people didn’t ask to hear me talk. I sounded like everyone else again, and I missed the care-free days of the summer. So, I decorated my bedroom walls with posters of surfers. I was determined to hold on to the magic of my California summer.
Surrounded by 60-foot waves, I dreamed of beach days and mushroom omelets at the beachside cafe.
My love for California never departed from my heart. Every chance I get, I go back to remember and dream of those summer days that meant so much to me.
Jason and I leave tomorrow for California and will spend a whole week “California Dreamin”. On our radar is San Diego, Palm Springs, Big Bear Lake, and Ventura. Who knows where else in-between, lots of places I haven’t been to. We don’t have a schedule or strict plan. Our only plan is do and see and go.
I will be taking LOTS of photographs.
Truthfully? Tomorrow morning can’t get here fast enough.
I am not even sure what I’m looking forward to more….sunsets on the beach, being off work, visiting the San Diego Zoo, or under 100 degree days.
Whatever we do, I can promise you, it will be enjoyed.
My next post will be from my iPhone in CALI!!!
🙂
A Taste of Spring in the Heat of Summer
My Mother’s garden.
In the Spring, the hands of my mother turn the soil. She picks each plant lovingly and places it in the dirt. She pats the ground around it and wills it to grow beautiful.
She works her garden all the year, but most especially, spring and summer. Sweating, watering, and arranging until she gets it just about right (but it’s never done).
We look upon her gallery of color and placement as if in the finest of museums. From one garden bed to the next, there is more to gaze upon and revel in. Hidden delights find your eye in wonder. Magic sparkles and weaves throughout the yard, delighting in fairy tales come true.
I don’t know if I every thanked my mother for her work, or for the love of gardening, she has instilled in me. I don’t know if she knows how much I appreciate the beauty she brings to life.
I took my camera to Oklahoma, in hopes, I could capture her joy and return it to her.
Mom, you make life more beautiful by just being in it. Thank-you for what you share with us, and for what I can share with all of you.
Gardening is a very special gift. It’s a mix of nurture, artistry, and love. There are many lessons taught in the garden of life. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
“There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.”
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden.”
“A little garden in which to walk, and immensity in which to dream.”
“All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of yesterday.”
“As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.”-Ben Hogan
“”True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice.”
— St. Francis of Assisi
“To plant a garden is to believe in the future.”
“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844
“Flowers whisper “Beauty!” to the world, even as they fade, wilt, fall.” ~Dr. SunWolf
“Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall. Count your life with smiles and not the tears that roll.”
The Summer of Hot
Today will mark the 39th day of temperatures soaring to over 100-degrees in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Thirty-nine days of melt everything-in-your car searing heat. Thirty-nine days of risking serious burn putting on your seat belt. Thirty-nine days of hovering in front of an AC unit, just to survive. Thirty-nine days of crispy brown grass and dead – way dead – plants.
Thirty-nine days.
And that’s not even the record. The record in 1980 is listed as forty-two 100+ days in a row.
Which we will beat – according to forecasters – on Friday.
It’s not just the record number of 100+ days in a row, we are, also, breaking temp records each day. Record low at night, record high during the day.
Today, as usual, we could break a record high. The record is 106. Temp today? 107
Two things I can assure you.
One, it’s not a dry heat.
Two, there hasn’t been a drop of rain either (oh, there are urban legends of rain, and/or mirages of rain), it’s not real. If you have seen rain, you risked outside exposure one too many times.
There is a small – obviously sick – part of me that looks forward to the new blazing summer record.
Hey, we got this far! Might as well make history.
Unless something crazy happens, we definitely will.
Now more people can understand why we have tinted windows in our cars and swimming pools on every corner.
These are not optional, they are required.
I hope wherever you are…..you are cool. In Texas, we are just HOT.
Happy Summer!
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