 |
| Bear wants to know, "Where is everyone?" |
Summer is here, Tuttle, The Nuke, and their tribe arrived safely at 0330 Sunday morning. Just in time for the birds to start singing and the sun to start rising. Needless to say, it was late to bed, late to rise.
 |
| Monday on the coast was, shall we say, a bit foggy. |
Sunday was a day of rest, perhaps because we were all too tired to do anything.
 |
| Laddie Boy, youngest of the tribe, wants to explore the gardens. |
Monday we were raring to go, an overcast day which turned foggy by the time we drove down to the coast.
 |
| Lily pad, home of the Big Frog. (Seriously, he's in there.) |
So far the visit has been great, lazing about the backyard and going places to see the sights. We're also eating far too well...
 |
| Kodi sits upon her throne, waiting for her subjects to pay homage. |
 |
| Grandma and The Wee Lass go down to the sea... |
Her sister Anya, the same age, is still full of vim and vigor. Which is a blessing in and of itself.
Of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Winter is my favorite. Having only now really listened to it, Summer seems rather depressing. Here's the sonnet which accompanied Summer back in the day (Vivaldi may have written this himself, though in Italian) -
Of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Winter is my favorite. Having only now really listened to it, Summer seems rather depressing. Here's the sonnet which accompanied Summer back in the day (Vivaldi may have written this himself, though in Italian) -
Allegro non molto
Under a hard season, fired up by the sun
Languishes man, languishes the flock and burns the pine
We hear the cuckoo's voice;
then sweet songs of the turtledove and finch are heard.
Soft breezes stir the air, but threatening
the North Wind sweeps them suddenly aside.
The shepherd trembles,
fearing violent storms and his fate.
Adagio e piano – Presto e forte
The fear of lightning and fierce thunder
Robs his tired limbs of rest
As gnats and flies buzz furiously around.
Presto
Alas, his fears were justified
The Heavens thunder and roar and with hail
Cut the head off the wheat and damages the grain.
(Source)
Seems to me that summer wasn't much fun in the early 18th Century.
YMMV.
That's the way to recharge Sarge, get those young'uns all revved up and give 'em back to their parents.....(heh heh). Vivaldi's "Autumn" gets my vote.
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteFor sunrise I'm partial to "Morning Mood" from Grieg's "Peer Grynt."
Delete(good thing I proofread as Grynt had been changed to Grunt)
You mean Peer Gynt, yes? 😉
DeleteThat looks wonderful Sarge (and cool, so blessedly cool).
ReplyDeleteThe Mediterranean Climate, while not humid, is not always kind one. The Rain stops about April and does not return again until October, with plenty of sun and heat. A great deal of California, for example, falls into sort of climate. Around September - yes, one can get very tired of the sun and sun and heat and more sun.
Right on the coast it was almost chilly, though I found it refreshing. Inland it was a bit muggy, but not too bad.
DeleteMy first realization that "we are dust in the wind" was at the USDA Experiment Station in LBB. We had picked small batches of cotton, each a randomized sample of a long row. We painstakingly weighed it, ginned it, acid delinted it, and prepared it for planting in the spring. I got a sprain bending and lifting mostly empty sacks of cotton seed that winter. We planted it east of the lab, and when it got to about 4 inches tall, a monster thunderstorm pelted us with hail that completely destroyed the work we had all done over the winter, and previous years. I stood at the edge of that field, and it was driven home to my mind that the eternal was the most important work for me.
ReplyDeleteI quit a month later and started training with CEF, then Capernwray Fellowship / Torchbearer's International. Life is an adventure when you find your purpose...
Alas, his fears were justified
The Heavens thunder and roar and with hail
Cut the head off the wheat and damages the grain.
I still feel most at home with my hands in the dirt...
I look at all that He has created and wonder why He loves us so much.
DeleteSorry your kitty has been sick. Just caught up on Sunday's post and came here directly, glad to hear she's still with you. Our first pet came to the marriage as Mindi's best friend before me. That loss was hard on her. Then it was some kids' pets which she wasn't quite as connected to. The latest, her Corgi Cici is her closest and most faithful companion, present company excluded, so when she goes, it will be the hardest of all I expect. I hope you fare well when the time comes.
ReplyDeleteNice pics of the "beach." Not quite the same as the beaches out this way, but I haven't been in years so I'm guessing.
We do have beaches, but yeah a lot of the coast is rocky.
DeleteWonderful music, the ocean, and time with family. Kodi does look regal.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing.
"It's better to be a big frog in a little pond."
And he is a big frog!
DeleteThe Koi! Where are the Koi? Nom, nom, nom--got my bamboo pole unlimbered Sarge, ready to fly in at a moments notice! And if we get in a nuke war with the Chicoms you know what that means, Sarge "To Hell with the size limitations & screw the limit!"* (he said w. a crazed look in his eyes :) ) * Stolen from an old Larson Far Side cartoon.. :)
ReplyDeleteHahaha!
Delete(The koi are hiding. They're hiding from you VX. They know...)
Around here, you have to take "precautions" around your koi pond to keep the herons and raccoons from decimating, umm, devastating, the fish population.
DeleteHave always liked the rocky coasts of the New England area - Rockport, MA, is aptly named, e.g. My artist cousin has done some great Watercolor and pastels of the Maine coast. Too bad the water is so damn cold!
Heh. You would've liked that old Far Side cartoon Sarge, it depicted two canoeists fishing in a mountain lake with mushroom clouds and glowing red & orange lights flashing beyond w. the guy in the back saying w. a crazed look in his eyes to the guy in the front: "You know what this means Ed? To Hell with size limitations & Screw the limit!" LOL!
DeletePS: Another funny play on nukes was back in the days when Sports Illustrated ran cartoons showing a foursome on a putting green with a mushroom cloud in the distant background with one saying: "Don't worry, we've got time to play through before the shock-wave hits." LOL!
Tom - We have problems with herons and cranes. There is a net over one half of the pond, they can also hide under the lily pads. Raccoons, not so much.
DeleteVX - I think I've seen both of those. Love The Far Side!
DeleteGlad kitty and family are okay. Sucks when one is sick. Or been travelling late in the night. Though night travelling used to be my preferred way of travelling, as the glowing orb of pain was never really kind to me (it seems like vampires have more solar resistance, and in the middle of the summer, under the hot sun, watching the sweat steam off my body, it sometimes seems like I am on fire.... bleh.)
ReplyDeleteWhat the ever living Heck is that connecting your land to your sea? No sand, no sea grass, no sea grapes, no (insert sound of brain freeze as I try to remember the name of that bush/tree that grows in salt swamps in the south and no amount of google-fu will generate the name...)MANGROVES, dang, getting old, storage medium is full. Looks like... rock. What the heck? :)
We haven't been foggy here. We've been... alternating between drenched and steamed and just 100% humidity (where there's so much water in the air it just hangs...) Temps have been down to 72 during the day (funny when the world is water-cooled, how severe rain storms cool it...) and down to 70 at night. Nice seeing the ground cover (I laughingly call the weeds and clovers and heathers and other small flowering plants intermixed with actual grass (at least 5 types, St. Augustine, Bermuda, Bahaia, Centipede and 1-3 other varieties) go from crunchy 'dead' to bright glowing green (of the non-radiated color variety) and sprouting new growth everywhere.
We needed it. We had, oh, 90+ days of minimal rain, and the world was getting crunchy-parched like it did in 98 when Florida burned. So dry the pine trees were so stressed they are still dropping needles.
Again, glad you are in family bliss and Sasha yet lives. Sucks when one is sick.
The rocky coast of New England, the bones of my homeland.
DeleteWe do have other areas along the coast with sandy beaches and the like, but Brenton Point isn't one of those.
I always love the post which shows your garden - thawing out. How many years now? Koi are marvelous creatures! We had one in a 50 gallon tank for ten years or more. I never quite got around to finishing the garden pool (eventually I made it a dry garden with "dietes" forming the "sea". Like Portland JN Garden. Smaller scale of course) It would have cost about as much as a pool! I wish I could show you.
ReplyDelete"We're also eating far too well..." Yes! That is a benefit, among others, which accrue to the hosting grandpa. Eating all day long is something you can do when there is a beach, heat, rain, and pre-teens in the house. The only down thing about all that is that they can now remember names of restaurants nearby and thus whine "can't we go to Snack Jacks" for shrimp and other luscious fare, only available, correctly done, here in Ormond-by-the-Sea.
We've been here 22 years, I think we started the garden in the summer of 2001. She works on it constantly, a labor of love.
DeleteOAFS/
ReplyDeleteThere are so many great Far Side cartoons it's tough to single out a favorite, but one that really sticks in my mind is entitled "TROUBLE BREWING" depicting a sky-diving school side-by-side with an alligator farm slightly off-set to the left, w. the sky-divers tgt landing area just beyond the gator farm and the runway w. sky-diving aircraft off to the right w. goofy-looking neophyte students filing out of bldg to load up as hungry gators eye them across the way. "Trouble Brewing" indeed!!! LOL!!!
Hahaha!
DeleteI am glad that Sasha is doing OK.
ReplyDeleteShe seems even better today. But...
Delete