I fear I’ve fallen dreadfully behind with my online life because I’ve been busy living my real life over here — isn’t it funny how they are not one and the same, though they are? The living is so deliciously summery right now. These are the hot August nights, the roasted looking green-fade that the trees and gardens suffer with the press of daily sunshine and wind: sunburnt basil, bolting lettuce. The air here feels a bit parched. I was walking through a ponderosa pine forest this morning and it smelled so hot and spicy and I thought I could almost see the scent rising up in crackling swirls from the needle carpeted floor. Two days ago, while I was down at the lake swimming, a horsefly bit me twice on the sole of my foot. It was terribly itchy. August always seems itchy to me. Itchy and fat. Itchy, fat and perhaps a bit stalled. Like the heat is too thick to really move through at a normal pace. August is like a black cow in a treeless pasture. Yup. It’s just like that.
I saw two osprey this morning. What gifts!
Tater Tot ran right over a sandpiper chick while I was wading and fishing the Chewuch River with Rob this morning. That baby bird was a bit stunned and fell into the river (they can sort of swim, you know?). It was in the current diving around and drifting on the surface, trying to get back to shore. The water was fast and I worried for it so I went after it, stepped on a swimming garter snake, screamed, and eventually fished the sandpiper out of the swirl it was in and held it in my hands for a little while before popping it into some tall grass to wait for its mother to come back for it. It had such a clever looking little face. Sometimes it can be difficult to set things free again, once I have them in my hands.
Last night, we biked to dinner in Twisp with the bunkhouse boys. I love being with Robert with those men. They are his rookie brothers, that is is to say they were in the same smokejumper rookie class as him at the North Cascades Base. Smokejumpers call each other bros and form a tiny and elite community here in the interior West — it’s quite the thing to witness. But Robbie and his rookie bros seem to have friendships and bonds that go deeper than usual. They’re such fine men. They’re so uncomplicated, good natured, helpful and considerate in all they do. I love it when they get to talking and laughing together. Actually, I love it when they’re all in the same room together! It’s as though I get a secret glimpse into a club I’m not a member of — the club of good men. I love good men. I truly do. I love how practical they are, how uncomplicated their relationships are and how they care for their friendships so loosely and easily. They’re so wonderfully different from women, in a way that is sometimes enviable, I confess.
When we reached town, we ate Thai food together. It was delicious.
On the bike ride home, the moon was almost full and it rose steadily above us as we glided around the highway curves back to the base. The air was warm, our bikes had wings, we were soaring on zephyrs. On the downhill sections, when I was able to coast through the night like a night-thing, and deer were scampering up out of the ditches onto the hillsides, I thought I felt my joy flapping like a cape behind me, tethered tightly with silken strands to the very soul and spirit of me, and I felt tangled with the beauty and mystery of the night. I exclaimed over and over again, “Look boys! It’s summer! Doesn’t it feel so free, like summer used to feel?” And they were all so kind to continuously agree with me, and pleasantly laugh at my exclamations. And Robert, my favorite of them all, was so tender and lovely to me, as he always is, and we rode side by side and when I reached out my left hand to him, he touched it with his right.
It’s summer and everything is just so summery good.
XX
wasn’t it C.S.Lewis in the Four Loves who spoke of the ‘boys club camaraderie’ that’s so needed and yet so hard to find nowadays? Seems these kind of guys (fireman, police etc) get that special bond as they all form a ‘tribe’ to face dangers with… pretty rare and amazing~ Love that you get to catch a glimpse of a ‘few good men’! I love catching a glimpse of when my man and his brother get together (which is often since we are house-mates).. and the way only those two can ‘giggle’ at the stupid-est things together!!
Feeling you on the fat.hot.sticky too.. ugh.
xo
Mel
needle and nest
Hey little beauty!
I think it was Clive Staples who said that. Good men need good men. It’s so true. I agree with you also that it seems like men who have high risk jobs that require them to…watch out for each other and protect each other…seem to form tight tribes together and I think it’s awesome.
Stay cool, sister. X
good men and a good woman and a hand touching the hand of a loved one: all this blesses my soul. it truly does.
august here is different than august there. but it is august nonetheless.
xx
I like it when you say nonetheless — it’s so YOU.
Sounds exactly as it should, chickadee, especially enjoying your first summer with RW in a long time. And, if I weren’t descended from trolls–possibly frost giants–I wouldn’t mind a slice of your summer, either!
Hubs and I spent the afternoon trying to turn my worktable (big heavy foldable picnic table) into a standing workstation. It was hilarious. We’re thinking we’ll now go the portable drafting table route! =)
Happy summering! (Let me know when it’s October.)
xxx
FROST GIANTS!!! Guffaw! Wait…have you read the dark elf series?
Good luck with the table!
XX
The evenings have felt fat and lazy and delicious, and always over too soon. The cicada song has been thick, the smell of sun baked juniper warm, spicy and sexy. If my body didn’t require sleep I’d just stay up and wander around outside until after dawn. Good to see you living instead of posting.
I LOVE the smell of sunny juniper stands.
x
“…I thought I felt my joy flapping like a cape behind me, tethered tightly with silken strands to the very soul and spirit of me, and I felt tangled with the beauty and mystery of the night.”
sigh. i so long for your book(s). i want to curl up on a chaise with a hot cup of tea and a woolen throw on a cold and blustery night and read these words in print between two hard covers so that i, too, can feel that flapping joy right along with you.
truly i do.
Ooh…..I’m working on it. X
i have to admit, i am just the teensiest bit jealous of the adventures you’re currently having. but mostly i’m just in love with your words and pictures. and how you call the month of august itchy and fat–that is EXACTLY right!
HA HA! Thanks for agreeing with me on the state of August! x
I’ve got one of the good men, too 🙂 You are so right – they “do friendship” so easily! No hurt feelings at lapsed time between get togethers, they just pick right up where they left off. I envy that.
Indeed… itchy and hot describes this month perfectly!
Yup! It’s awesome to watch.
as always i love it all. the emotion, the thinking out loud, the openness and your eloquence in expressing it all so beautifully, but i must say the last paragraph is beuong gorgeous. your heart so fat in the best possible way and translated into words. a souveneir of a summer made memorable for all the right reasons.
keep living. it’s what it’s all about 😉
Hey little cloud! Thanks for being so kind. X
beuong?!
im not sure what language that it, but i know you’ll be able to speak it and know beuong means in english ‘beyond’….
;p
HA HA! I think it’s a tonal language of some sort… 🙂 Cantonese?
Oh, men. I love you guys 🙂 And I love those HUGE HANDLEBARS!!! I love my men friends…they are so uncomplicated, almost too much so at times 🙂 What a summer you are having!
The monkey bars are a pretty big hit around town. Strangers are always asking to test drive that bike…
To feel a free summer, as it used to feel is such a gift! So glad your en-JOY-ing—
I am! I am. xx
I am with you sister
it i a tough time to balance the tow worlds
I rend to let this one go
with a peek in now and again
summer needs to be embraced after all, she has no patience to wait for me
so I am swept up in her pull
enjoying the warmth of the sun
the summer evening…ahhh the summer evening
maybe indulging a little too much on those things I shouldn’t
and the memories, the memories of times gone by always seem so much more prevalent in summer
mmmm yes…like icecream : )
you will appreciate this
in less then two weeks we take our little travel trailer for a trek up through Banff and Jasper, coming back around into BC via Prince George and onto Barkerville
oh the adventure of it all….see…she sucks me in!!!
you last few posts are beautiful
as always
love and light
ps enjoy the fatness of the month abundance is great
You’re going to love Jasper and Banff! PG is one of my favorite Northern cities. If you get a chance, pop by the uni there. The buildings are very creatively designed! Bon voyage! X
lo you know PG??? I grew up 5 hours north west of there…Smithers : )
You are so right about Jasper and Banff…this will be the first time through for our youngest
Bon Voyage indeed!
I TOTALLY know PG.
And isn’t Smithers the town with the HUGE fly fishing rod???
Interior, Northern BC is a good place to be from, my friend.
🙂
XX
mmmm too bad I don’t proof read
lets try that again
“I am with you sister
it is a tough time to balance the two worlds
I tend to let this one go”
muh!
love and light anyways
I think it’s healthy to let it go, from time to time. x
Just seeing the word summer makes me feel good….I am only thankful that if I miss this one another one might be around the corner in a different time zone…have to play mind tricks…ENJOY ENJOY
🙂
I’ll enjoy it for us BOTH, ok?
XX
Gorgeous summer time… and August is fat and itchy! 🙂 Ah, riding bikes with pure JOY- I have known this pleasure. Beautifully written- and I would read your book as well. 😀