Childhood Calling

Summer and childhood just go together. I always think back to my own childhood summers and have great memories.

Things like zinnias growing in the backyard in all sorts of colors...seems like even back then I loved nature, and noticed her. I used to cut off stems of purple lilacs from the yard, place them in a cup and set them on the table, then savor their fragrance while it lasted.
Or seeing mom's laundry hanging on the clothesline and blowing, sometimes fiercely, in the summer wind. Later, I'd savor that one-of-a-kind fresh smell of the sheets as I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, ...my window open and a canyon breeze blowing in my room. I'd wake up nearly freezing early in the morning, and snuggle deep into the covers to get warm from all that cold morning air in the room.
Lazily blowing dandelions every which way to the wind - not a care in the world, ...or staying up late to read in bed, with my parent's blessing most of the time. Books like, "Little Women," "Jane Eyre," and "Nancy Drew," were some of my favorites, and that love of books only increased as I grew older.
So many memories stirred with this season and all the delights that she brings. I still love flowers of all sorts, a cold wind blowing and snuggling to keep warm, and poring over familiar and unfamiliar books alike, to find new favorites. Childhood is calling, and trying to recreate those feelings of childhood works...if only in the summer.

Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow