Mrs. Teabody Walks Away Summer 2017


"The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year – the days when summer is changing into autumn – the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change."
―E.B. White, Charlotte's Web


Summer 2017 took shape on a steep incline in Ireland. Yes, I (eventually) made it all the way up to the famine cottage and the beehive dwelling, but I was pitifully breathless not to say a bit embarrassed by my graceless ascent. Inspired by my twelve-years-older traveling friend, Siobhan, I decided that day to embark on a walking program and I am proud to report that not a summer day has passed without my logging at least two miles and sometimes as many as seven (!)  of forward movement. As every walker will tell you, one of the great benefits of a daily perambulation is insured reflection time. As every nosey walker will tell you, it is also a great opportunity to look into back gardens. Herewith, some observations.

Green, Green, it's green they say . . .

Observation #1: Has there ever been a greener August? Let me answer for all those who have spent their leisure time trying to keep up with the mowing: NO, there has not. Not for us this summer the  sparse and lacy stibble and parched and  rusty grass so typical of a Pennsylvania summer--no way, Jose'.  Take a walk, people. Inside  our local housing developments, lawn meets lawn in shorn perfection and the green reaches from street to house exactly as it was intended. Further afield in fields everywhere, second and third cuttings of hay have kept farmers happy and everywhere you look, you see trees and ornamental grasses in fine form. A very GREEN August.

Here at Chez Teabody, green things have grown taller and container plantings have gone absolutely haywire. Perhaps the plants loving this summer the most are the elephant ears which each day seem bigger than the day before. We LOVE them and we love this flower standing among them.
Niece Darci is dwarfed by huge, green elephant ears
Who does this?

Observation #2: Odd things in bins. I wish this photo were clearer so you can see that this is an empty (Yes, I lifted it!) half gallon Kahlua bottle which I discovered as I walked across Sheetz parking lot. I thought of my friends and which one would suddenly decide to deposit an empty whilst pumping gas and concluded that ALL my friends recycle. Not wanting to carry around even an empty Kahlua bottle through the  early morning streets of  town, I left it there but it caused me no end of wondering and I suspect it will cause you to wonder as well.

Is this YOUR empty Kahlua bottle?
The buses are coming, the buses are coming . . .

 Observation #3: 'Burg dwellers are not early risers. Some mornings I get in my entire walk without seeing another moving soul.  We've walked the length of First Street several times where the only sounds are the odd and inexplicable banging from inside the Fulton County Library and the songs of errant birds flying between perches.  Yes, there is vehicle traffic along 522 and 30 but the houses have been quiet. Motionless.

All this changed this week, of course when we came upon a few freshly-laundered yellow school buses warming up to make their first runs of the new school year. And with that sighting and that rumble, everything changed. Summer for all practical purposes is drawing to a close-- at least for those of school age or  of school employment or  for those who are school-adjacent  for soccer and field hockey and dance classes and swimming lessons--for all things educational. For the rest of us . . . well, we were once school-adjacent as well. We remember September. We do.

This morning as I backed my car up to turn toward my downhill drive to meet my walking friend, I  felt August and summer slip away into the darkness that was not quite ready to greet the day, into the air with just a little nibbling bite in its coolness, into the heavens where that bright star, that planet Venus winked and then announced she was here to stay. I heard the "rumor of sadness and change" and I reached toward it with an open and ready heart.

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