Summer’s here y’all

The temperatures are venturing into the 90s. The tomatoes are loving the hot weather and warmer soil. Plants that get watered regularly are greening up and leafing out while those that don’t wither and brown. And the mosquitoes. They multiply exponentially every day. So we wear our bug spray, and we search for those amazing bits of summer that can happen in our corner of southeastern Oregon. We watch the mama grebe usher her young onto the creek and teach them how to seek out a meal. We catch the iridescent flash of a humming bird as it dashes to the feeder to chase off some competition. We see massive black beetles waddle across the ground. We marvel at the nighthawks that sit parallel to the tree branch or fence post instead of perpendicular like every other bird in existence. We yell “boom, little buddy!” when the terns take a dive in the creek. We study the frogs that have found a cool place to sit under the swing set. We pick and eat ripe red strawberries off the vine. And on those days when the storm clouds gather, we wait in anticipation for the lightning to strike and the thunder to clap. Summer is here.