It is August and full-on summer in the northern hemisphere. School is still out, people are vacationing, enjoying water activities, camping, playing sports, and, well, you name it!
“Wander a whole summer if you can…time will not be taken from the sum of your life. Instead of shortening, it will definitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal.” ― John Muir
I wasn’t born yet when this song first hit the pop charts in 1958, but believe me, I heard it countless times growing up. It’s a peppy tune with a catchy tagline!
Borrowed my post’s title from the song Summertime, Summertime, by The Jamies
Summer Memories, Long Ago and Far Away
As for me, I never fully appreciated summers until I started high school back in the 1970s. Summer was that break from school, homework, and I daresay drama. Until I started working once I became 18 years old, summers were spent with friends, in swimming pools, at slumber parties, at the beaches, and dabbling in sports. I attended a shortened “post-session summer school class just before my high school freshman year to acclimate myself to the school. The class was four hours of physical education. Teachers would lead us through swimming, track-and-field, trampoline, yoga, tennis, and weights every day for three weeks.
Believe it or not, this class was where I met my future husband Hans, and his twin brother.
I spent the following three summers taking that summer school class which got me ready for the coming school year’s sports and student government. In fact, on August 16, 1977, just three weeks before my senior year began, the news was a-buzz over the death of Elvis Presley. It was an unusually gray, humid morning in San Diego, and once I got home from summer school, I turned on the TV and watched the sad news.
This was also the same week in 1977 that we got our senior pictures taken for the yearbook. Aren’t we young??
Summers at Play…
…growing Sunflowers
Nothing says summer more to me than sunflowers. Enjoy this oldie-but-goodie gallery of sunflowers I’ve grown from seeds in the past.
When we arrived home from our road trip, over two dozen sunflowers had popped up all around our property. I hastily moved some precarious volunteers into some pots so they could get consistent water.
Both images have a bee! In the one surrounded by the sky, you can just make out the irritated bee on the right flying back…yes, I disturbed her lunch.
My neighbor has a huge garden of cone flowers mixed in with random sunflowers!
I get into my photographic groove by focusing on nature. I love taking interesting angles of flowers, trees, and landscapes.
…on the Rivers
For years, summer also meant spending weekends at the Sacramento River delta enjoying windsurfing and stand-up paddling.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” – Heraclitus
We’ve moved on to new rivers and lakes…
…camping in Yosemite
When we were kids, summers seemed incomplete without our annual family camping trip to Yosemite National Park. Pictured are views of the South Fork of the Tuolumne River, Tenaya Lake, and a big drink of Yosemite Falls!
“Rivers are places that renew our spirit, connect us with our past, and link us directly with the flow and rhythm of the natural world.” – Ted Turner
Summers at Work
During my career in parks and recreation, summer was THEE main focus for keeping people busy with leisure activities and hobbies. I spent 32 years, rather, 32+ summers in high-stress mode making sure the public was satisfied with their choices of summer activities.
I also spent 20 stressful years (summers) involved in public aquatics as a lifeguard, and later as director of 15 swimming pools. Public safety was (and is) of the utmost importance. We metaphorically took a deep breath and held it from the end of May through Mid-September while the pools were open. During the Fall and the rest of the year, we “relaxed” and started planning again.
From end-of-summer lifeguard games to lifeguard training, to teaching and organizing swim lessons, our small staff did it all! My daughter was a pool manager and she is the one with the megaphone standing on the diving board.
Life became weird when I retired in 2015 and had every summer off, even when teaching at the university. No classes in summer, not working and subsequently no stress, became my new normal and sought-after lifestyle change. No problem!
Where Bloggers Live
“It’s Summertime and the livin’ is easy…” ~George Gershwin
Now that I am officially retired from work and teaching, I can take summer road trips, which we did of course, and thank you for reading about my recent adventures. While on this road trip, I had the pleasure of meeting up with several bloggers.
Once I learn where bloggers live, I make the attempt to visit if our itinerary will take us near where they are and time allows. I hit the jackpot this trip!
While staying in San Diego, I had lunch with Janis from Retirementally Challenged. This was our 5th time meeting! It helps that we travel to San Diego at least once a year. We enjoyed our long chats about life and of course, blogging! Janis looks beautiful in this picture, right? I don’t know what happened to me—apparently, I get cross-eyed when taking selfies!
As we planned the Arizona leg of the road trip, I consulted with Marsha of Always Write, with whom we would be staying in Prescott. We planned a blogger meet-up in Scottsdale. We managed to gather five of us together to enjoy a nice lunch. Three bloggers live in the Phoenix area: Donna of Wind Kisses, Janet of This, That and the Other Thing, and Jodie of Jodie’s Touch of Style. Jodie’s husband Rob took the photos, so no one had to look cross-eyed this time! Missing was my blogging pal, Ingrid of Live, Laugh, RV due to her previously scheduled appointment. I had met up with her twice before while we took our winter road trips in 2019 and 2020.
In September, Marsha and I are traveling to the Portland, Oregon area. Both Marsha and I have some family members in the area, as well as several bloggers we plan to meet up with. If you live in the Portland area, contact me or Marsha!
If you have never met another blogger IRL (in real life), it is an absolute pleasure to do so. It’s amazing the commonalities you find through blogging and I count many of my fellow bloggers as life-long friends. It’s a real treat to discuss all things blogging and everything else under the sun too! I get a kick out of talking rather than typing…I talk much faster than I type as I’m sure they will tell you!
I’m also pleased to share that Cheryl from Working On Exploring will be headed to the Spokane/Coeur D’Alene area in two weeks. Guess who’s parking their RV in our driveway? — hooray for another blogger meet-up!
And when I travel to Europe one of these days, you can bet there will be some blogger meet-ups there!
“Summertime is always the best of what might be.” ~Charles Bowden
Our 9th wedding anniversary is August 22. But we’ve literally known each other since 1974, (48 years)!! That’s what summer is all about, Charlie Brown.
Inspiring Photo Challenges
Each week I am inspired by my fellow bloggers’ photo challenges. I find it fun to incorporate these into my Sunday Stills weekly themes.
- Cee’s Flower of the Day
- Hammad’s Weekend Sky
- Johnbo’s CellPic Sunday
- Lens-Artists: Your Photographic Groove
- Marsha’s Writer’s Quotes Wednesdays: Rivers
- XingFu Mama’s Whatsoever is Lovely
This Week’s Featured Bloggers
Sunday Stills is a wonderful community of bloggers and photographers who desire to connect with one another. Below are this week’s links from bloggers who shared their summertime photos. I add these all week as new links are posted.
- YOUR BLOG’S TITLE HERE:
- Always Write
- Beachwalk Reflections
- Between the Lines
- Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
- Cee’s Photo Challenges
- The Day After
- A Day in The Life
- Equipoise Life
- Frost on the Moosedung
- Graham’s Island
- Hugh’s Views and News Image shared in comments
- Kamerapromenader
- LadyLeeManila
- One Million Photographs
- Peaceful at Dawn
- Photos By Jez
- Space Stories By Gift
- This is Another Story
- Travels and Trifles
- Travels with Ali
- Travel With Me
- Wide Eyed Wonderings
- Woolly Muses
- Working on Exploring
- XingFu Mama
Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders
- Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
- Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
- Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
- Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
- Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
- I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.
Note that on August 14, there will be no Sunday Stills post. I am off the grid from Aug 15-18, camping with our neighbors on a remote lake in Northern Washington. I’m hoping a day trip over the Canadian Border is on the itinerary!
“No phones, no lights, no Motorcars” ~ From 1960s TV Show Gilligan’s Island
This week, share your ideal summertime activities, wishes, projects, or anything that makes summer memorable or special for you.
Sunday Stills will be back on August 21 for the monthly color challenge: mustard! Have a wonderful week.
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