Lingering

Summer is lingering. It has been somewhat like high summer in Iowa here in Texas these last few days. The ground is drying out, even cracking in places. All of the weeds and prairie grasses are towering over my head. It is humid, warm, even hot in the middle of the day, and there's a drowsy buzzing that accompanies the sunset each night. The frogs start up their chorus and the fireflies flicker above all the greenness into the night. Now, I should mention that Texas doesn't really get fireflies. It's a new phenomenon, what with all the rain. It has warmed up a little again, and the humidity shrouds the rolling hills and leafy green trees each morning in a thick blanket of cottony fog. It gives the illusion that our house is an island, a secret Avalon, each morning as I walk Charley and his lunch cooler out to his truck to kiss him goodbye for the day. As he dissapears down the lane, I sometime imagine he's gone to the land of the humans!
I came home in the daylight today, a rare treat. I cooked a huge homey meal and we had John, our tenant, over for dinner. The guys were most excited about the warm fluffy biscuits, and I was most happy with the salad topped with a florette of cucumber and a crisp red pepper strip. Before they got home, while the potatoes were roasting, I walked around a little bit. My volunteer garden has gone kaput. There have been some really spectacular spider webs,by one Banana Spider I spotted, and some other plump, 25-cent-piece-sized arachnid, that have been put up in corners and across neglected paths. The Agalinis and the Parralena are still blooming, although the Agalinis is drooping. There are often little tiny sulfer butterflies at the base of the weeds. There is a 20% chance of rain tomorrow, and Autumn usually brings to us another rainy season. Who knows what it will bring us this year - it may continue to be unusual in weather patterns as the rain was to the height of summer.
We're headed to Connecticut on Friday, and I'm going to enjoy the 75 degree weather, although it is hard imagine right now what it will feel like to wear long sleeves. But if it is chilly, and I do get to wear long sleeves, you can bet I'll linger a bit longer than the others, outside in the Northeastern evening.