Happy Summer Solstice!

Summer! For those of us in the northern hemisphere,  it means sun and heat and longer days and being outside as much as possible. As a girl growing up in South Carolina and Wisconsin, summer meant riding bikes until dark and evening BBQs and seeing who could catch the most fireflies and counting mosquito bites. Summer mornings, always on a Saturday, started to the sound of lawnmowers and the smell of fresh cut grass the fans blew in through the windows - open before the heat and humidity of the day set in and air conditioners needed to be turned on. The cicadas trilled in the heat of the day; the crickets took over at night. Taking a shower only helped you to smell better because the humidity never allowed you to dry off. No one noticed. We were too busy telling stories and building forts and stealthily wandering from one house to the other in pursuit of whatever good guys vs. bad guys game we had concocted - while our parents sipped beers and martinis and bourbons on someone's patio.

Now that my home is in the desert, anything around the ocean is what soothes my soul (too hot from about 11am to near sundown). I've been fortunate to have lived an easy few hours from the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans all of my life. Even so, I love the quiet cool stillness of a desert morning before the sun warms up the distance mountains - and again as the sun dips below the horizon. No mosquito bites to count. No fresh cut grass to tickle my nose on a Saturday morning - but a special summer essence all on its own...

Whatever you love doing, or wherever you are north of the equator- Happy Summer Solstice - a time to refresh and have FUN and celebrate all life under the sun....







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