Hello summer, is that you?

Being mindful on the first day of summer:

Hooray for the long-awaited first day of summer, meteorologically speaking that is.

However, in typical English weather defiance, we have been promised a day that is “dull with grey skies and drizzle, some early heavy rain“.

Quite.

And incidentally, it’s the same temperature as it was over Christmas, 12-13 Celsius!

I am now slightly regretting putting my winter coat, scarf, hat and gloves, along with my warmer clothes up in the loft as I recently switched my limited wardrobe space from winter to summer attire!

But as we all know, we are only blessed with such rain to ensure our glorious nature is kept lusciously green and blossoming with life: the English countryside wouldn’t be as beautiful as it is without our very generous rainfall allowance.

And so I appreciate how the flowers, trees and plants will all be thankful for this wet day.

One of the best things about these kind of gusty days, is watching our neighbour’s magnificent sycamore tree from my bed.

I attempted to capture it on video and of course the tree became a little camera-shy, but here goes: please click here. (Ummm… I’m not really sure if this is going to work as it’s the first video I’ve ever tried to upload to YouTube and it’s very confusing for my brain-fogged mind!! So fingers crossed it works.)

It reminds me of a symphony with its branches the orchestra and the wind its conductor. I feel honoured to have a front row seat to its performances and am mesmerised by nature’s sweet music rising and falling, full of emotion and drama, as it reaches its crescendo.

I think this poem by Charles Ghigna sums it up perfectly:

A Symphony of Trees

Trees make such exciting sounds.
They whisper, when we’re near.
Whenever we pass by the trees,
This is what we hear:

We hear their branches sway and creak.
We hear the wind howl higher.
We hear a symphony of trees,
Of nature’s great, green choir.

We hear the squirrels scampering.
We hear the blue jays sing.
We hear the robin and the dove,
All sounds the trees can bring.

But one thing that we never hear
When we pass through the park;
We hear the trees’ sweet symphonies,
But we never hear their bark!

It really is a beautiful sight to behold.

☆♡☆

Day 93: My happy tree

Being mindful as I follow our tree’s autumn glory:

I started taking daily photos of this beautiful Liquidambar styraciflua (sweet gum) tree in our front garden in October; its final leaves fell on Christmas Eve.

While it wasn’t quite as magnificent as previous years, I’ll let the photo collage tell its beautiful story:

autumn tree

I also wrote this silly little ditty in homage to our lovely tree:

Oh tree you make me happy
As I follow your life-cycle with joy
With abundant fullness throughout the summer
Your maple-like leaves so many and so green
But your brilliant glory days come in autumn
When you really give us such a treat
As your leaves turn from yellow, orange and red
And hold their lavish colour all season long
Then as they fall and gather upon the ground
Baring your branches for the winter months
You become a different work of art
As you stand strong ready to face the elements
Now I patiently await the arrival
Of your first buds of spring to begin your life-cycle once again

So with this in mind, my happy for today is being mindful as I follow our tree’s autumn glory.