While hauling a few days ago, I looked across from Ten Pound Island to Condon Cove. The awareness was immediate. Our good friends' house had its white plywood shutters back in place. It seems only a couple of weeks ago I noticed the white plywood gone and someone inside the window opening the place up. The point was made a little more sharply this morning with our island fellow's departure on the ferry after 2 years of countless contributions, and generous, good humored service to the island.
People are leaving. Thoughts of school and woodpiles creep in. So begins secret summer.
The runup and passage of Labor Day weekend felt like an arbitrary boundary even before we moved here. Leaving the hayfields and sitting inside a classroom. As a parent, getting kids back into morning routines. Standing on the sidelines at soccer games. It's still summer dammit. It can't be time for desks, schedules and straight white lines on the grass.
Here the sweet weather, warm water, garden growth all stretch out far past Labor Day. Yet so many departures and a lot less traffic change the atmosphere prematurely away from the summer parade.
This is secret summer. The beach does not know of semesters. The grass is green with no straight white lines.
Just read your story in the Arkansas Dem Gazette and was so impressed with your quest for zero carbon footprint and a simpler life. Wishing you well and will be checking in on your adventures.
ReplyDeleteHere's a second from Arkansas! We are so impressed and we LOVE lobster.
ReplyDeleteThank you Arkansas! With any luck, I'll be set up to ship throughout the country next season.
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