"Summer Day Past Noon", oil, by V....Vaughan

Our beautiful weather continues. I just returned from the park, where I sat in the shade of one of the splendid trees, enjoying the look of the blue sky, the wandering white clouds, the swaying trees, and the feel of the perfect temperature. Actors were rehearsing for Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona under some nearby trees, and even their voices seemed buoyant and nimble like the weather. In between being distracted by the lovely weather, I read some of George Eliot’s Adam Bede, a story about the wild and free-spirited countryside of 18^th century England, and somehow the tale seemed to fit well with a day of such full-bodied and enlivening weather.

I took an early bike ride this morning, an hour’s trip along the river and out to Watch Hill. I pretty much exhausted myself, but it was a bracing exhaustion, the kind that gets you ready for another summer day.

And finally, I am overflowing with admiration for my four grown children. This past weekend they all came together to help one of them pull through a sorrowful situation. I watched with awe as their generous love wrapped around them all.