Repeatedly throughout the day, I move from the air conditioned space that has provided relief from the heat and step out onto The Urban Porch ™ in order to leave the chill and be enveloped in the warm, bathwater density of the outdoors for a few moments. At first it feels pleasant, but eventually the thick, cloying atmosphere is enough to drive you back inside.

I don’t understand how it can be that during the heat of mid-July, and with all the drenching rain we’ve had, some leaves high up on the maple Crow Tree have already begun to turn.

In the early morning hours before it gets too steamy, there has been a lovely floral scent on the warm breezes, not unlike wild summer roses. This propels me out into the street in search of the source – only to find it is emanating from a combination of flowering plants on my own front porch, the blend a harmonious perfume.

Humidity builds to the point where it finally releases in a crazy barrage of hail and rain – the temperature drops about fifteen degrees. While driving, visibility became almost zero, intense enough to require pulling off the road in order to wait it out. A brief reprieve – as soon as it ceased, the temperature rose again.

Then at home, more water, more rain. Sitting on the porch with a sister and the dog, we watched lightning flash and sheets of water blow in patterned waves across the road, until soaking gusts of wind sent us running inside to dry off; somehow our laughing shrieks reminiscent of our mother.

Even with the humidity, on the hottest of days we sought even more water……a beautiful display of fountains was enjoyed during a family excursion.

It was another sweat-fest of a day when, at the insistence of a friend, I overrode my aversion of swimming pools to at least stick feet into the aqua water of her backyard oasis. The older I get, the more I find just immersing about up to the ankles is usually sufficient enough to cool off. So we sat on the edge of the pool and swished our feet around. You know the heat had to be pretty bad for me to do that…..

Shortly, we headed to see family on the coast with visions of balmy sea air, only to find it was just as lush and steamy there too. Yet over the days, as the moon was waxing, the air began to slowly and beautifully clear.

On to the shoreline, for more cooling of the feet!

And more clearing of the atmosphere, until the skies were a crisp, fresh blue, as we bade farewell to July.

Is that just wet sea-breeze in my eyes, or is it tears of recollection, as I watch my grandchildren play at water’s edge? It moves me to memories of other times, in another life, my children, now parents themselves, playing on island beaches in their own sweet summer bliss.

Hello, August.

Must just be water in my eyes, as we watched the super moon rise.

~*~