Dog Days of Summer

By the calendar, summer arrived 21 days ago.  By my acute summer senses, summer arrived this weekend!

While we were out and about in our backyard, probably throwing the ball to Jack or moving the sprinker to water another 'new grass' area, we heard a couple of cicadas in the trees surrounding our backyard!  I don't know about you, but to me the sound of cicadas just screams summertime, and it was none to early because for the first time this summer we've got a heat index of 100 degrees today!  (Actually, that may be a slight fib.  While we were away in Europe, we were told that there was an extreme heat wave that raised temperatures for a few days here, but since we didn't experience it and the 'summer' days since we've been back have been simply lovely, this is our first time experiencing 100 degree temperatures this summer!)  But we are not complaining!

I absolutely love the sound of cicadas.  If you could bottle that sound up with a few fireflys, a light pinkish blue sky and a little bit of heat, you'd have a little dose of summer year round!  And when I hear them during the day, I can't help but daydream about a glass of cold ice tea, a chair, and a shady porch to sit on!

In addition to the summer serenading cicadas, we also noticed that we have a wonderful Rose of Sharon blooming behind our shed.  Our yard continues to surprise us!

I think we can all agree that summer is officially here!  Welcome, Summer!  Welcome!

(Can you picture a sun smiling with sunglasses on right now!?  I can!)