Summer Reading

Summer Reading

This summer I’ve been walking to a small neighborhood park 

on the east side of  St. Paul.  Once a week I take my lunch, I sit 

and read, I watch people come and go.

There is an old woman in a wheelchair, and a man some years 

younger who sits beside her, reading aloud from a very long book.  

In the heat of summer, they sat in the shade of the trees on the 

lawn.  As autumn has drawn near, they have moved to a sunny 

bench.

She leans toward him in her chair, head angled so that her ear is 

close to his voice.  His finger is tracing the words on the page.  

I think about the intimacy that comes with reading in that way 

over the course of a summer.  I wonder what world they are sharing 

together in this moment.

I finish my lunch and notice these milkweed seeds quivering in 

the breeze at the edge of the park.  Before heading back to work 

I take a few minutes to consider them as well.

~ Hal

In the Garden

In the Garden

It’s been a great summer for exploring gardens.  For various 

reasons, our own garden has gone more than a little bit wild 

this year; but one thing I’ve noticed is that even in an untended 

garden, the love that went into the original sewing and planting 

isn’t difficult to discern.

This past weekend we returned from a family vacation, visiting 

with my parents in Asheville, North Carolina.  One of the moments 

I enjoyed most was sitting on their back patio watching the edge 

of evening glide silently across the yard.  Afterward, I stood up to 

take a closer look at the flowers growing in the cool stillness of 

their water garden.  I brought the memory home in this photograph.

~ Hal

The Invisible Embrace

The Invisible Embrace

On Friday I told Maggie I was going to build the gate for our 

back fence. She lifted an eyebrow at my declaration, mainly 

because this is a project that I've been putting off for, oh, about 

2 years.

On Saturday morning Maggie and Maura went off to a swim meet; 

the boys were sleeping over at friends' houses. I did not go directly 

to work on the gate. I walked out to the back fence where I was 

overtaken by the warm sun, the buzzing of bees, and the joyously 

overgrown end-of-summer jumble of plants.

So I put off the gate for another half-hour or so and got lost in the 

morning.

~ Hal

Summer Thunderstorms

Summer Thunderstorms

Our last fling of summer was to drive down through Iowa to Rock 

Island, Illinois for Maggie's 25th high school Reunion. We got up 

very, very early on Saturday morning and made our way down 

through some beautiful farm country while the skies put on a 

dramatic show at sunrise.

We had a wonderful time catching up with old friends and I made a 

few new ones as well. We also spent some good time with Maggie's 

folks, who put up with our coming and going and helped with the 

kids for the weekend.

On the way home we ran into some really intense summer 

thunderstorms rolling east of Waterloo, Iowa. I pulled over and 

got out of the car to take some photos as the leading edge of 

these scary looking clouds bore down on us.

~ Hal

Back in the Groove

Back in the Groove

After our trip to the Boundary Waters, it took me a while before I 

really felt like taking photos for the journal again. I still had a lot 

of images from the trip running through my head.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I took my camera in to work. At lunch 

time I went out front and ran across the same patch of prairie plants 

that I took pictures of earlier this spring. The difference was that 

now they were in full bloom.

I ended up chasing this bee around for a while, which I imagine 

was pretty amusing for folks passing by.

~ Hal

Kiss the Summer Hello

Kiss the Summer Hello

This rose has been climbing our trellis for a couple of months now. 

Today I got home from an early morning run and noticed the bees nearby.

The sunlight was bright and hot, but it was reflected into the shade 

and the glow was palpable.

No need to wait any longer - just kiss the summer hello.

~ Hal