I’ve showed up again to tell you that summertime is the best thing. Lucky me, I live in a temperate climate, and do not have to rush about meeting deadlines put upon me from other people; my days often pass in what seems like a natural and unhurried way, even at my work: in winter I carry wood and build fires, and at this time of year, there is lots of strenuous gardening to do.
Excepting the occasional heat wave, it’s typically just Very Warm midday, with the nights down to 50, and the cold fog often hanging on until late morning. One morning in July I used the furnace, which showed me that I am turning into an old lady. This week included another extra-chilly awakening, but I took the conservative route and added a wool cardigan to my first two layers.
So, summertime is perfect, in my case, for sharing a poem mentioning The North Wind. His counterpart around here is The Marine Breeze. I’m not that close to San Francisco, but I do often think of the comment (mis)attributed to Mark Twain: “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”
What I love is that at least by noon, and usually much earlier, I can walk around my garden in the pleasant air and eat breakfast next to the pineapple guava tree, where graceful arches of salvia flowers lean in, and the Sun persuades me to take off my sweater.
THE NORTH WIND AND THE SUN
Betwixt the North wind and the Sun arose
A contest, which would soonest of his clothes
Strip a wayfaring clown, so runs the tale.
First, Boreas blows an almost Thracian gale,
Thinking, perforce, to steal the man’s capote:
He loosed it not; but as the cold wind smote
More sharply, tighter round him drew the folds,
And sheltered by a crag his station holds.
But now the Sun at first peered gently forth,
And thawed the chills of the uncanny North;
Then in their turn his beams more amply plied,
Till sudden heat the clown’s endurance tried;
Stripping himself, away his cloak he flung:
The Sun from Boreas thus a triumph wrung.
The fable means, “My son, at mildness aim:
Persuasion more results than force may claim.”
-Babrius, aka Aesop (2nd century) Syria
Translated by James Davies
Gladsome Lights 
Hi GJ! Oh my! It’s beautiful, your patch! I used to think about the wind and the sun battling on my way to school, on the school bus. I think I was in fourth grade. It made a huge impression on me❤️
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What a pleasing garden you have!
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After we were married and before we moved to Washington State we lived near the beaches of Southern California and experienced a ‘marine layer’ frequently. We had some mighty winds blow through on Friday. That quote about San Francisco made me smile. Enjoy the last month or so of summer!
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Oh, how lovely this is! I have wondered about your climate, since I guess I have no understanding of the California weather. It is a Large State. You wouldn’t like it here. (so, in summer you go down to fifty at night??)
Anyway, I appreciate your good description. And the poem is great, and so true. “Persuasion more results than force may claim.” Yup.
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Yes, a very large state! Where I grew up we often had summer « lows » in the 70’s. And no AC at that time.
Because it’s so temperate and not usually humid where I am now, many of us get by very well without AC, which I appreciate very much — though it requires a lot of opening and closing of windows, I’m able to be more intimate with the weather of the day 🙂
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Yes, summertime IS the best thing. In Michigan it is far too short and flees far too soon. So we cherish. What a lovely Sunday post, Gretchen!
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I’m so aware of the summer passing. I’m okay with the end of the heat but not the days of sunshine. We eat all our meals outside now and will continue until it gets uncomfortably chilly.
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😮 Mary Ellen, “All our meals outside” sounds brilliant in every sense of the word. You are amplifying God’s gift of summer ☀️
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So different from our hot and humid summers. I still remember as a child the summer my parents put in a window air conditioner unit. I wonder how we ever survived without AC and now being so accustomed to it I do not think I would like to go back to living without it. Though we do keep our home units set on a higher temp. This morning at 6:00 it was 63 degrees outside and it felt so wonderful. But the day heats up to 85 and the humidity makes it feel warmer…like 89 degrees. So this morning when I went out to walk and to do a bit of gardening, instead of a sleeveless top, I wore one with short sleeves!
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Our summers are so much hotter (most of the time) so that “strenuous gardening” is very limited to an hour or two after dawn. But I do feel the languid flow of days without external deadlines.
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Oh for a morning when I could wear a sweater! I’m a bit envious 🙂 And 50 degrees and a light fog in the morning hours! Oh my — that sounds like autumn here. Enjoy!
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