summer

The things I associate most strongly with the summer are not surprisingly also associated with home, where I've happily been for the last week.

summer means sunburned shoulders crouched down in a field picking tiny strawberries.
summer means sticky red stained fingers and closing your eyes and seeing strawberries because you've been staring at them all day.
summer is spit bugs on flowers brushing your back and nose.

summer is also canoeing all day and exploring tributaries.
it's bakeing new things I've never tried before.

it has been in the past time on the ropes course and making up games with people who think in surprisingly similar manners to you.

later summer means black rasberries hidden behind fortified walls of nettles and poison ivy, then it's knowing what jewel weed looks like to sooth your stings.
it's riding through the woods and falling into the mud.
it's helping with theater and melting under the lights.

it's picking blueberries out of a canoe while someone reads outloud to you.
it's letting your brother convince you to vault over things.

it's going on vacation, reading in the treehouse, sailing, and smelling familiar smells of ceder and calimint.

mostly this week it's been spending time at home and getting to bake, picking strawberries, canoeing and letting my brother teach me how to jump over the four-foot trash can.