Midsummer Sun

Happy Solstice and welcome to the hot, humid official start of summer. This Ozarkian summer is off to a lush, wet start. Our brooks and springs are running, creeks and rivers are raging, mushrooms are popping up and the wildflowers are rejoicing. I walk the woods, gracious for summer rain and the fecund wilderness all around, limbs heavy with green, briars with nearly ripe berries, the woods awash in brilliant summer hues. It's time for cool dips in rivers, stargazing in earnest, deep breaths beneath shade trees, & blackberries on tongues. I try to complain less about the heat, the humidity, the swarming bugs and see the miracles that dwell in summer, like home grown vegetables bursting with flavor, a nest of bunnies in your garden, or like a field flicking with fire flies.
 

Blooms of a Prickly Pear Cactus, Missouri native