Summer. It’s more than word. It’s more than a season. It’s more than a state of mind. Henry James wrote that “summer afternoon have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” Summer is a noun, an adjective, and a verb. One can summer in Montana, reading summer novels, going to summer movies, and falling head over heels for a summer romance only to suffer heartbreak when summer yields to fall.
Living in Alaska taught me to fully celebrate and appreciate summer, where the brevity and intensity of the season seem to engage every cell of every living thing – from animals to plants. Life near the two poles of our planet fosters a special, visceral relationship with the sun, where the earth’s seasonal tilt brings either complete winter darkness or bright midnight summer sun. Each and every ray of the sun counts as all living things absorb its energy, frantically sowing, growing, and harvesting during those long, long days that drain away all too quickly. Each year, Alaskans pause and seek a mountain top to fully commemorate and contemplate the moment when the earth reaches it orbital zenith, and begins its tilt in the opposite direction. Summer and winter solstices are never overlooked.
Celebrating the summer solstice on Flattop Mountain near Anchorage, Alaska.
Midnight during the summer solstice in Barrow, Alaska
While Montana’s seasonal shifts are not nearly as dramatic as those that occur in Alaska, they are equally defining. Our long summer evenings, our forever summer sunsets and sunrises, the siren call of our cool lakes and rivers on a hot summer day, the riotous explosion of alpine flowers in the mid summer high lands, a warm summer night sleeping under Montana’s starry, starry skies beguile and entrance us and fill us with sweet memories to sustain us through winter’s long, cold nights.
Dunrovin summers mean fun and adventure, time spend horseback riding in the back country, floating in canoes or inner tubes down the Bitterroot River, fishing for dinner, hosting friends and family on the deck, and gathering on the front lawn for a wine tasting or musical performance. Summer means ospreys at the nest, sand hill cranes in the marsh, the unmatched beauty of a meadow lark’s song, and the kaleidoscopic colors that roll through the garden with each new bloom.
Summers at Dunrovin: Lingering Sunsets and Sunrises,
Friends on the Deck for Dinner, Bear Grass Along the Trails
Summers at Dunrovin: Soda Fountain Lunches,
Fishing for Dinner, Mountain Trails, Fields of Flowers
Summers at Dunrovin: Hot Afternoons on the River,
Evening Wine Tasting Parties on the Lawn
Summers at Dunrovin: It Just Isn’t Summer without Ospreys at the Nest
Ozzie and Harriet Giving Way to Harriet and Hal
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For me, summer is most beautifully summed up by Lee Hazlewood’s opening lyrics to his song, Summer Wine:
Strawberries, cherries and an angel’s kiss in spring
My summer wine is really made from all these things
“An angel’s kiss in spring” lifts the heart with the mere promise of summer. Summer wine – a peaceful, leisurely moment, the delicious taste of summer’s bounty, freedom’s invitation to a wondering mind, a refreshing tonic for a stressful soul, drinking in the warmth of the summer sun.
Summer Wine in Montana
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What sums up summer for you? Please share the joys that your summers bring.