Quote of the day: “Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don’t they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”  ― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

End of Summer Flowers

Savoring the End of Summer

State fair time in Minnesota. Fair goers are consuming unlikely foods on a stick at the fair and enjoying the great Minnesota get-together.  (As for myself, I’m not usually a fan of the fair, but may head out there some evening just for the photo ops.)

The weather has turned from beautifully mild wide-open window days with lovely cool nights to hot steamy air conditioner working hard days just in time for fair-goers. While I enjoyed the wonderful month (or more) of wonderful sunny days and cool nights, I am also enjoying this blast of heat, soaking it in, as if I can store it for long cold winter days to come.

Leaves are starting to look a little worn

The late summer flowers are in magnificent bloom. “Back to school” is either a much-loved or reviled phrase (depending upon one’s point of view) echoed in advertisements, mother’s sighs of relief, and college kids’ ambivalent preparations for returning to campuses across the country.

I too, am getting ready for fall with plans for a September exhibit of some of my Timeless  Hawaii photos at Three Sisters’ Sludge Coffee Shop in Minneapolis. I’m celebrating two years since my very first photo exhibit at Three Sisters’ Sludge in September of 2011!  I will be hanging the photos sometime the morning of September first and taking them down September 30.

On my neighborhood walks this week, I saw evidence of the end of summer all around me. From the scum-covered ponds, to the well-worn and sometimes tattered leaves, to showers of willow leaves filtering down to the ground in the breeze, signs that summer is waning are all around.

Here are 3 common ways to respond to seasonal changes

1. Savor every moment, knowing that each day is a blessing in its own way and that the one thing we know for sure is that change happens.
2. Complain that summer was too short (again!) and bemoan the fact that days are getting shorter and the seasons will inevitably turn.
3. Totally miss these last flaming days of summer by focusing on what is coming, as in, “I can’t wait until …”

Do any of these ring a bell for you?

The only moment you can live is now.

If you are too busy regretting the end a pleasant moment or looking forward to the next moment, you miss the gift of the present moment.

Slow down, savor the end of summer. Enjoy the magnificence all around you.  Smell the bees (or the flowers)!  Soak it all in.

Insect tracks in grape leaf

Summer grasses

A drift of color

Pink hydrangea

Summer abstract