My Photo Journal: Summer Phlox (1)

The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year,
like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.
The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring,
and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn,
but the first week of August is motionless, and hot.
It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons,
and sunsets smeared with too much color.
Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer
— one of those summers which come seldom into any life,
but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going
— one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather,
delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.
L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

What is currently blooming in your garden this summer? Phlox and black-eyed Susans are obviously enjoying their moment in the sun but other perennials presently thriving in my garden are Buddleia (butterfly bushes), Echinacea (coneflowers), various lilies, summer roses, hardy hibiscus, and Japanese anemones, just to name a few.

I've harvested massive handfuls of tomatoes and baskets full of Swiss chard, okra, strawberries and early potatoes from my vegetable beds. The garden is teeming with life and beauty, and my senses are overloaded with nature's plenty. I feel blessed and thankful as summer asserts its glow on my heart.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future,
not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have,
which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.
The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach.
A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.
Seneca

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