I walked out onto the front porch tonight, just for a moment, as the sun was setting. It had been a hot and sweaty day, with the kind of direct bright sunshine that I’ve never liked, but the evening had begun to mellow all that. And though it had threatened rain all day, it never come true on the promise, and yet the smell of an impending storm hung in the air.
I was only dashing out for a moment to grab something that had been left outside — the children still needed to be fed and bathed and put to bed — but I found myself paused there on the porch. It was just too seductive — so balmy, and quiet, the sunset golden pink… I didn’t want to leave it. It was utterly enchanting.
I have always loved English summers, with their cool freshness, their faint mildewy-ness, the warmish days and chilly evenings. But they were all the forgotten — the last 15 years melted away — as I was transported to back to the summers I grew up with. And I stood unmoving, frozen in place for a few moments, to drink it in.
English summers are blues and greens, gentle, and tender. American summers are dusty golden yellow, harsh, and brash.
And beautiful, beautiful… beautiful.
Stumble it!
I know *exactly* the smell and feel you are talking about and can’t wait to experience it myself next week when I arrive on US soil. American summers rock!
It must be something about this summer that inspires nostalgia. I’ve spent the past week or more transported to those few heady summers when I was in my late teens.
I too remember those golden glowing summers. How I hated them when I grew up, hated the heat and humidity and longed for the few remembered much cooler English summers! But mid-teens and younger, they were fantastic. I never lived in a house with air conditioning (still don’t) and remember hot nights spent sleeping in front of the open door in the downstairs of my parents house, trying to catch a breeze, long days lazing in the public swimming pool or the river…
Ha, now I sit here in England, happy to see the sun this morning but expecting some heavy downpours later in the day. I’m not complaining though!
I did miss US summers during our years in Scotland. Maybe I wouldn’t have as much had we been in England, where it is warmer. But I love hot weather, screen doors, baseball games, s’mores, and camping in the US.