Summer at the End of Winter

What stops me from posting so often is the time involved in creating or transferring images to my blog, so let me tell you about this day with words alone.

It is a beautiful, glorious day here in southeastern Virginia.

The sun is getting low in the sky, but thanks to Daylight Savings Time, it is still far from dark. (How I love Daylight Savings Time. Almost as much as I love cinnamon and chocolate.)

I rolled over in bed this morning and marveled at the sun coming through the neighbors' pine trees. (Does this tell you that I slept in? Well, so did the sun...)

The birds are singing, and they don't sound nearly as crazy as they did a week ago, or will again in a few days. Same birds, I imagine, but now they sound a little smug instead of a little out of place.

There is a warm breeze washing over my bare arms.

I read on the couch this morning, with that same breeze blowing in through every window in the house (days like this, I don't regret the exorbitant amount of money we spent on new windows, because I can open them all in the time I used to struggle with one), and I heard a lawnmower going. Such contentment, I have not felt in a long time. Although I cannot imagine what those people could have possibly been mowing.

Later, I sat at the drawing table next to another open window, painting some new maps, while I drank in the breeze like water, and Gus the cat joined me in the studio, and sat in the other open window.

Now, I am sitting at our patio table - I hauled out the umbrella this afternoon -- and am basking in gratitude that this reminder of what a day can be came just in time, on exactly a day when I really, really needed it. And also, gratitude that Al made me promise that I would sit outside today, since he has to be at work and I have a tendency to forget to enjoy good weather.

But today, I am savoring every minute of it.

So if you are somewhere where it is cold today, or rainy, or even too hot to enjoy the day, I am cupping this lovely summer breeze in my hands, and holding it out to you. Enjoy.