June

June

The sun is rich
   And gladly pays
In golden hours,
   Silver days,

And long green weeks
   That never end.
School's out. The time
   Is ours to spend.

There's Little League,
   Hopscotch, the creek,
And after supper,
   Hide and seek.

That live-long light
   Is like a dream,
And freckles come
   Like flies to cream.

  --John Updike

The part...:

"And long green weeks
   That never end.
School's out. The time
   Is ours to spend."

...speaks to me because I still have summers off and I truly appreciate that the time is mine to spend.

As a kid, I loved walking Minnehaha Creek in the summer. I have especially fond memories of walking Willie, the family dog. After supper our version of hide and seek was kick the can.

Whirly Birds (150th Post Today!!)

Dale and I have a silver maple in our front yard and our next-door neighbor Jim has one in his back yard. Between the two trees we get a LOT of the seeds in our yards. As kids we called them whirly birds (I know some people refer to them as helicopters) and used to collect them in Kemps ice cream buckets. We'd climb a ladder and dump them and watch them twirl to the ground. If we felt adventurous we'd walk to the Nicollet bridge that crosses Minnehaha Creek and dump them over the side. It's a lot more fun to play with them than having to sweep/rake a whole yard full, but I do have fond memories of them!