I'm in Denial

I'm in denial that summer is not almost over!

I have really been thoroughly enjoying these final days of summer, and every time I see a yellowing tree, I want to scream, “No, no NO!! I am not ready for summer to go!”

I usually welcome fall with arms outstretched to the clear blue sky and a feeling of, “Ahhhhh! A break from sweating!” But, summer this year was slow to arrive, and once it did, it flew by so fast, and I am not ready for it to end. It’s like summer arrived, I blinked, and then poof!  It is now almost gone. It doesn’t help my mood that a hard winter is predicted for our area, and we all know how I feel about winter.

While I am denying the end of summer is near, I am doing my best to soak up and enjoy every last green leaf, vibrant flower, warm breeze, and taste of summer produce I possibly can. 

 *One of the first things I do each year as the calendar page turns to September is buy myself a bouquet of sunflowers from Schnucks. That happy little vase of sunshine-y loveliness is well worth the $10 it costs. When one bundle fades away, I buy another and another, right up until it’s time to decorate for Christmas. Sunflowers have been one of my favorite flowers for a long time, even before I knew that they are named what they are because they turn on their stems each day to face the sun. A vase of them on my kitchen table reminds me to be like a sunflower always look for the sunshine.

*Speaking of sunflowers, two weeks ago, I visited a 40-acre sunflower farm with two old friends. I have never seen anything like it, and I took so many photos. They don’t come close to showing how impressive this field was. It was hard to get good photos because of the time of day we were there, but wow. So beautiful. 

Afterwards, we quenched our thirst at a winery down the road.

Adirnondack chairs. A pond overlooking the vineyards. A delicious glass of wine. Old friends. A late summer Saturday afternoon.

Perfection!

*I have been making myself go for long walks a few times each week. My weight loss seems to have stalled, causing me to have to add in some exercise rather than get frustrated and give up. Thankfully, I have a couple of quiet, pleasant walking spots I stop at before I get home. Once I am home, the game is over, I am lazy, and my best intentions are given up on. So, I have been taking walking clothes and shoes with me to work, changing at the office, and then getting my daily exercise in before I go home. I tradeoff between Creve Coeur Lake and the river front in St. Charles, depending on my mood. Either place works because I find being near the water so relaxing, even if I am walking fast and sweating. If I have a choice of bodies of water, I prefer the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico over the Missouri River, but I am grateful for what I have near me—lake or river. Some days, I am tempted to blow it all off and go home instead, (and some days, I do just that!). Work has been stressful lately, and on the days that I don’t give in to my desire to be lazy, I always enjoy my walk and feel revived once I get home. The scenery does help! When I go to the lake, there are always flocks of ducks and a couple of high school crew teams practicing. 

 

*End of summer means my girl’s birthday as summer transitions to fall. 22 years ago, expecting a baby girl, I envisioned birthday cakes with flowers and pink frosting. And I made those cakes for a few years. However, she is partial to pie, so every year, she requests and apple pie. Her birthday is today, but she is spending it with friends on a float trip, so she came home last weekend just so I could make her birthday pie. It made my heart do a little pitter patter to know that birthday tradition is still important to her. 

*Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to a luncheon fundraiser that my boss had tickets to but was unable to attend. Thankfully, a coworker whose company I greatly enjoy went with me, and I really can’t think of a more perfect way to have spent the last day of summer. Just LOOK at this place! (How can I have lived here for 27 years and never gone to this wonderfully picturesque place that is less than 20 miles from my home? HOW?? 

Very puzzling. But, without a doubt, I will be making more visits to Wine Country Gardens!

It was a blazing hot day (in the high 90s with gross humidity that made it feel more like mid-July than late September), lunch was outside, and we sweated like crazy and fanned ourselves with flimsy pieces of paper, but I didn’t care. We drank wine, chatted and laughed with the other ladies at our table, and had a delightful afternoon that was a decadent break from the same old work crap.  

Days like yesterday make me wish that days like yesterday happened more often.

And days like yesterday make me wish it wasn’t the end of September with winter right around the corner.