Calendar-wise, I know summer sticks around for another three weeks, but I’ve always thought that Labor Day, which is tomorrow, ends the season. Maybe it’s because school starts again, which means the weather always gets hot but then turns. Maybe it’s because I see our flowers and shrubs and trees weighted under the blooms of the past weeks and begin to let go. Maybe it’s only a mental construction.
Regardless, I turn to reminiscing about the faded summer. What did we do? What will we remember down the road?
For me, the most overriding thing was the weather. It was absolutely spectacular here in southwestern Michigan and reminded me of a song from Lerner and Lowe’s musical “Camelot.” Words to the song describe how “July and August cannot be too hot” and “The rain may never fall till after sundown.” It was that way this summer at River House.
It’s odd for me to say weather was the most memorable thing, but it impacts all other things. Good weather makes them more special; bad weather forces the event itself to be special. Given the great weather we had this summer, the other events I’ll remember are our trip to go fishing in northern Saskatchewan (which also had remarkable weather while we were there), our own home’s wonderful foliage, and a family reunion just up the road in Saugatuck.
We had our home up for sale, but so far haven’t had a serious offer. No matter. It isn’t as if we are dying to leave. We would like to downsize, but if that’s not possible then this is the place I want to be. I will say farewell to summer tomorrow, look forward to the colors that are autumn, and batten the hatches for what the Farmer’s Almanac describes as a winter colder and snowier than usual. It’s a fair price to pay for the summer of 2008.
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