Central Summer

July 4th. Independence Day (in USA). The middle of summer. We will all be going to a friend's annual party this afternoon, and before that, all of us are out working on the front garden. Ahem. All of them are -- I appear to be writing this entry instead.

It doesn't feel like summer is half over -- the children have been out of school for not quite three weeks. The weather has been "summery" (meaning, not cold and rainy) for fewer than two weeks. It doesn't seem fair that we are marking the halfway point already.

On the other hand, calling July 4th the middle of summer has never been quite fair -- it's a good week early in the calendar to be truly halfway, at least for those of us at the 45° parallel and above. We have another 8 weeks of no-school, and then another 3 weeks after that of warmth (in the Pacific Northwest at least), so we're only just beginning.

The cats are well practiced, however, in spending the long, sun-filled, lazy days doing what they do best -- making sure the furniture on the porch isn't left unused.