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There is a dry rustle of leaves parched from days of sun and hot temperatures. There is an aroma of fading roses mingled with sweet ripening pears.
Green clover spreads across our browning grass. Honey bees drift from blossom to blossom, gathering the last bit of nectar. Dozens of cracked walnut shells are scattered beneath the tree limbs where squirrels feast. Between the bees and the walnut shells, I make note not to walk barefooted.
The distant roar of a passenger plane draws my eyes upward to search the cobalt sky for a sliver of silver. And it gives pause to the moment, How many times I have been on one of those flights departing PDX, my work commute!
A welcomed breeze with a bit of northwest coolness blows strands of hair across my face.
The laurel — a twelve-foot hedge of vibrant dark green — casts a shadow across the rock walkway as the sun moves ever westward in the afternoon sky.
Coming from the middle school yard is the thud, thud, thud of a basketball on blacktop and the rise and fall of voices at play. I remember when the voices were the voices of my sons.
I lean back in my Adirondack chair, close my eyes, and let the moment wash over me.
This is a summer afternoon I want to remember. The past. The present. For the future.
Do you see the squirrel cracking a walnut?
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where Alice Nine teaches language lessons that
Empower Students to Read and Write
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Alice, I am not sure where my comment went to so I shall start again. Your prose writing captured me. Your imagery set up the scene as a tribute to nature. As I read I thought of the haibun poem format that would add a haiku. The summer afternoon brought peace to you that was transmitted to me.
Carol, Thanks for sharing your thoughts and taking the time to do so twice. I’m sorry for the confusion. My blog is set so that I must read and approve comments before they go public. So after you post, you can’t see it until I approve it.
Alice, as I read your prose, I kept thinking that your prose writing would make a beautiful haibun if you added a haiku. The imagery in your slice brings life to nature. Thank you for writing this week.
I felt like I was right alongside you as you set this scene—especially with that cool northwest breeze. What a beautiful moment to capture!
How lovely to sit and notice all your senses. I loved the smells of fading rose and ripening pear- just that says so much, leaving and arriving. Then there are connections to the future and past, through hearing the plane and the balls. You pack a lot in your memory of a summer moment.
Such a wonderful image of summer peace and reflection. The sight of the branch, the sound of the plan, the feeling of the strand of hair on your face brings me back to a summer afternoon of peace without the restrictions of our fall worlds.
Alice, Your prose took me away to your place in the presence of rest and nature. Lovely imagery.
A Perfet way to spend some time. We don’t always take the time to be in the present. There is so much happening around us if we just take the time to be and enjoy. Love the picture. Our squirrels eat from our bird feeder.
Alice, what a beautiful piece of writing!