A Summer Night

Summer is my favorite season at Spruce Pine Cottage. It’s the green time, the lush, sultry time, the time when the rosinweed blooms and the garden is full of tomatoes. Box turtles come out in the rain.

Nighttime is even better than daytime because there are fireflies. I like to sit on the breezeway and watch them, and listen to the frog songs and all the insect music. The summer nights are so noisy; they roar and buzz and fizz and peep.

Last night I sat on the breezeway in my pajamas, and the lamp by my side made a pool of golden light. I was reading a cookbook (The Taste of Country Cooking) and talking to the cats; they were lying about on the cool wooden floor like seals on a beach.

“It sure is nice here, isn’t it?” I said. “We sure are lucky to live here, aren’t we?”

Carl yawned luxuriously, and I took that as a yes.