I can feel summer slip-sliding away, even though the days are still long and warm and full of flowers. Every day is filled with things to do and time to do them; the sudden realization that the kids start school in 3 days comes as a shock. Yesterday we filled the house with good friends, lots of laughing, running, tumbling children, bright red crayfish and smiling moon lamps on the porch. A day of cleaning early, and then relaxing and waiting, anticipation mounting before the party start time, culminating in a very fun evening, and a long slow day today with everyone sleepy and a bit off their game.
Crayfish tail sandwiches, salmon and spinach quiche, leftover birthday cake, admiring comments on our new furniture and the new rock garden in the front yard. Small girls with long blonde hair in braids and pink eyeglasses. A tiny baby with huge blue eyes and an inquiring expression. Conversations with my brother and watching him play with the kids. The new picture frame hanging in the living room, a birthday gift from my brother: made from a refurbished glass-paned window from a house being razed in Germany. A book that I was a skeptical about turning out to be really good (there, John, happy now?). The prospect of sunshine again tomorrow after 2 days of cloud and rain showers.
(above photos taken by John Slaughter)
