The end of summer

Summer is ending as surely as the days have grown shorter and the cicadas’ music has dwindled away in the last of September’s mellow and wistful afternoons.

I see it coming in the cooler winds that blow along the beach, and in the clearer, bluer skies of approaching autumn.

Gazing out at the crepe myrtle trees, I noticed with a shock the season’s rapid passing in the yellow leaves that had appeared almost overnight.

Walking the trail at Caw Caw Park Saturday, I was almost fooled into thinking summer was eternal, as the grasses and weeds rose high, the ground was moist, and the trees infused with new life and spirit from recent rains, or so it seemed. The breaking of a drought always appears to bring life back to the land with such hope and optimism that the dust and cracked earth seem only a distant memory. It was hot out there, yes, but out by the rice fields that cool, companionable wind I have been noticing everywhere of late gave me yet another foretaste of fall.

Our trees retain their summer’s health and vigor long into October here in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Warms days linger into November and even December. But I feel the changes coming. Those wonderful, friendly crickets are playing their final songs, but I don’t think they know it. They refuse to give up their place and time in the grass and sun.

And I am happy to hear them for as long as care to keep us company in this departing season of abundance.

Farewell, summer.

Cricket music…how beautiful for the end of summer. You please me with your observant reflections.

Hm.. summer until december? Sounds wonderful, though I like the changing of the season also. These days we have such a lovely sunny weather here, cold in the night and warm i the middle of the day

Amanda Cayhill

September 25, 2000

The leaves are dropping, the pumpkins are being picked… I feel it, too.

Oswego, thank you for your lovely note at my diary about the marsh. Part of the problems might also be from the southwest winds pushing in salt water. This entry struck a note of familiar feeling in me. I love what

…you write and the wonderous feel that you have for nature. No one will ever be able to say that you did not stop and smell the roses along the way in your life. You give us all so much! Love,

How refreshing the view of seeing the world through your eyes! Gypsy Song

I have indeed thought of moving back and forth from one port to another, as one of them suggested, sharing the view with each of the dear ones from time to time, but– this would become wearysome for them–and me!

Above note from Gypsy Song

Wow, South Carolina. Sorry, I have this stigma about the south, it’s so nice to read beautiful things about it.

Hamlet

September 26, 2000

It is odd, last week was so terribly hot and now it is raining and almost frigid. All in the span of a weekend.

Someday I’m gonna figure out how you manage to capture exactly what I’m feeling….

Willy & Wilma

Always love your beautiful word pictures of Nature’s bounty about us, Oswego. Please keep them coming.

You’ve captured it beautifully. It was 50 degrees here this morning. A time to rejoice.

The crickets! Lately I’ve been sitting on the bench by my building & listening to them sing & realizing how — in the West — there are no crickets or if there are, I did not hear them. Now you make me realize…

I did not hear them with their night-singing. Now they have stopped here & we might get frost tonight. Early cold, bracing & envigorating! Akhmatova

PS -left something out between screens – I mean I no longer hear them singing at night here — and please, don’t stop writing here. Many love you! Akhmatova

:o) missed you!Love,

I love the beach when the weather gets cooler. Oh, to be at Hilton Head!

Very beautiful. There is a sadness to the end of summer. I sometimes wonder if it is something left over from when we were children.

I do love the quieting anticipation of autumn.

Summer’s end is a melancholy time for me. You sum it up beautifully.

saw your tracks in my sand and thought I’d wander your beach for awhile… beautiful. i’m enthused to have your eyes seeing SC for me, half a continent away.

Ah, that lovely nostalgic feeling. I like the word wistful, too. Very true. It seems the older I get, the more wistful I become this time of year. Nothing a nice crackling fire and snuggly warm sweater can’t fix!

Edelweis

April 26, 2002

Amazing! Beautiful written dear friend. Reading this…now…sounds a little sad. Nature is just reborn, everything looks new and fresh. It’s so difficult to believe that there will again come an end on it. I enjoy nature so fully now and admire every new flower, every new leave that grows in my garden. Your entry convinces me that I have to cherish nature like I always do, because soon enough

the seasons change! Altough today looks more a cool autumn day here. We had lots of rain an real strong wind. I welcomed the wind…and the sound right now, outside, knocking at my outside blinds. It’s so long ago that I heard it! :o) Take care,