The stupor of deep summer is upon me. It's the "try-to-get-all-outside-stuff-done-between-the-hours-of-5:30-am-and-7:30-am" type of weather. I've been thinking lately that summer divides itself into three sub-seasons, at least here in the mid-Atlantic:
Early summer: late May to the solstice, when you're just getting into the swing of things and planning adventures. The whole summer is before us! What shall we do?!
Prime summer: starts just before July 4th with the sun setting late into the evening, lightning bugs, fireworks, and heat but you're not sick of it yet. Here you have all of July still before you. Feels like you've got all the time in the world.
Deep summer: starts the tail end of July and into August when days get very hot, even oppressive. Maybe you're starting to get sick of the heat but not ready for back-to-school mode. Maybe you're a bit panicky: summer almost over already? I seem to get a bit stuck here, finding it hard to kick into gear and debating whether to just melt away instead.
Anyway, it's been several years now that I've coveted a giant floating flamingo to sit in on the water. Haven't bought one yet. But I do have my trusty pink flamingo yard ornament standing guard behind some wilting shasta daisies. I love that flamingo and no matter where I live, I like to make sure there's one in the garden somewhere. It's sort of like planting my flag. "Anna Lives Here."
Some people, mind you, think these pink flamingos are tacky.
They aren't wrong. But they aren't right, either.
I came across this perfect quote the other day from Duncan Hannah's memoir 20th Century Boy:
"Good taste can dampen creativity. Make you inhibited. Make you shy away from out-of-reach glories."
We wouldn't want to miss out on those glories, would we? Of course not. So drag out those flamingos and let's tackle the rest of this summer.
