Summer Breeze

Summer breeze, makes me feel fine!

Click PLAY for some Seals & Crofts Summertime Music to enjoy as you scroll on...

Though we mortals withered during the heatwave that crashed upon Tennessee this summer, these tomatoes thrived in my Aunt Tina & Uncle David's backyard. They somehow managed to soak in beating sun rays and three-digit temperatures to achieve ripeness, while we humans stayed poolside to maintain a more bearable level of homeostasis.

"Sweet days of summer
the jasmine's in bloom
July is dressed up
and playing her tune

And I come home
from a hard day's work
and you're waiting there
not a care in the world

See the smile a-waitin' in the kitchen
food cookin' and the plates for two
Feel the arms that reach out to hold me
in the evening when the day is through

Summer breeze
makes me feel fine
blowing through the jasmine in my mind
Summer breeze
makes me feel fine
blowing through the jasmine in my mind"

My little cousins, Kaycee and Katie, helped me spot fluttering butterflies/moths/flying things. I owe it to them that I was able to capture these pictures!

I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain. -John Keats

Butterflies are self propelled flowers.  -R.H. Heinlein

"Work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do." -Oscar Wilde

Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.

-ECKHART TOLLE, Stillness Speaks

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace.”
- Milan Kundera

“Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.”
― Dean Koontz, False Memory

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." - Lewis Grizzard

"To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment." - Jane Austen

Jan

 

"I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. - Helen Keller

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.  My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams.  The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful.  -Abram L. Urban

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.  -Walt Whitman

In a very simple sense I want everything that's in a work to be there for the reason that it's needed. It's not an ornamentation. It's not there because I thought it looked nice but because it has to be there.  - Paul Cullen

"Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short, but when we have had our swing of pleasure, our fill of fruit,
and our swelter of heat, we say we have had our day."
-   John Donne, 1620

Kaycee and Katie kept me company on my picture-taking walk through Aunt Tina and Uncle David's garden. They pointed out butterflies for me to photograph, but they were especially persistent about this pink rock's need to be preserved on film. The two little girls had painted a friendship rock and marked their initials with glittery lettering that glinted in sunlight. They were proud of their bright pink garden addition and I willingly granted their request to snap away!                                                                                                                   "But friendship is precious; not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine."  – Thomas Jefferson

“The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.”

-Tryon Edwards

“The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.”

My Aunt Tina is super creative- you could say it runs in our family, I guess. (Mamaw, Mama and... hopefully, me.) Tina and her husband had seen a similar decorative wooden structure that bore a price tag unworthy of it's simplicity. Rather than purchase the way too overpriced item, they decided to get crafty and added some personalization to their artwork. I love this idea! David cut pieces of wood and family members contributed ideas for places to feature on each plank. This is such a sweet, sentimental creation that added bright summery appeal to their deck. I'm gonna copy this genius craftiness someday!

Tropical, beach-themed decorations always make me think of summer...and summer breeze makes me feel fine!

"We can't help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water. 
Milk drinkers draw close to the mother.  
Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists,
Hindus, shamans, everyone hears the intelligent sound
and moves with thirst to meet it."
- Jeladuddin Rumi (1207-1273)

~  This post is dedicated to Kaycee and Katelyn. I wouldn't have gotten these pictures if I had not taken your advice! Your pink rock is fabulous... Also, this is dedicated to Tina and David who gave  summertime happiness to our family this July. Thank you for everything! Love to you all.   ~  Regina