Summer Afternoons
Henry James and the summer solstice
“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” Henry James wrote that, and remembering the summer afternoons of my childhood, I agree. Endless summer afternoons, only ending with dusk and fireflies and screen door slams and the scent of summer suppers—usually involving onions frying—calling us inside, to wash up and sit at the table and end the day in the best of ways.
Baths in the big cast iron clawfoot tub, cotton baby doll pajamas, windows open and the fragrance of honeysuckle coming through the bedroom window screens, blown around by the old black oscillating fan. The soft swooshing of that fan lulled me to sleep on so many of those nights. Later on it would be Percy Sledge singing about “When a Man Loves a Woman” but that was years to come and unthought of in those early childhood summers. It was all sweetness and slow time.
Were they milder back then, the summers? I think about living now without air-conditioning and it is unimaginable. We did it back then though, and it seemed normal, living seasonally and adapting, as people used to do. I think those days are gone forever.
I don’t know if it only seems like time passed more slowly back then, and we all had more time, or whether we really did. Memories are unreliable and we create as often as we remember and so they shine probably a little more than they should. It’s likely a mercy.
I always thought when we moved here that I would have lots of flowerbeds and plantings and a great deal more landscaping than we’ve done. There was so much infrastructure work that was needed that the landscaping was pushed out and pushed out and still has not happened, and now I’m not sure that it ever will. Lots of plantings and planting areas require lots of maintenance and I am not in a high maintenance stage of my life right now, nor will I ever be again and it doesn’t make sense to create a lot of that. I do still love the effect though of having flower gardens and cottage style gardens and so I try to figure out some ways of doing that without the large amount of hand work needed to keep it looking beautiful. My Mom always said that something simple but immaculately maintained was so much more attractive than something elaborate that looked messy all the time, and she was right. And then there’s the trending toward hotter and dryer summers, so whatever I do should be done with that in mind. Azaleas suffer in that climate, so glorious as they are once a year, that’s a big no.
The summer solstice: here we are. And I still love the summer state of mind, or at least *my* summer state of mind. I don’t know about yours. 🙂 That would be the one which is a full out change of pace and attitude: turn the page, celebrate the season, do everything differently. And you can decide for yourself exactly what that looks like. For me, it’s cooking different foods, changing up our routines, reading books about summers, listening to summer themed and evocative music, “summerizing the house.” I remember long ago when we would take our winter woolens to the dry cleaners to store them over the summer. Does anyone do that any more? We really only have one wardrobe these days.
How to find joy in the summertime? Being joyful is my constant practice and I’m working on that.
#journalingalife
