Summer has come, where was spring?

Yesterday it was 86 degrees with nary a cloud in the sky, sun beating down and the smell of flowers and barbecue permeating the air. This year it went from a cold 60 with slanting rain to the beautiful weekend just past, with hardly a moderate day in between.

Now, this could all be explained away as a normal variation. Some years are just like this, have been forever. Some years the spring comes early and lingers late and people start to complain that summer never comes. Just like all the tornadoes ripping through the center of the country. Some years there are just a lot of tornadoes.

It could also explain why we've had such massive and destructive storms in recent years - Katrina, Sandy, to name two. Big storms do come around occasionally.

And then there was the story in the news today that officials in the Marshall Islands had discovered the remains of some 15 Japanese soldiers from World War II. Their shallow graves had been destroyed by ocean waters that were 8 cm higher that just a few years ago on an archipelago where the highest point is only 2 meters above sea level.

One or two of these could be coincidence, could be the normal variation of nature over time. But all of them and more in the past ten years? Maybe not.

Let me know what you think! Comments (polite ones!) are always welcome.

Midsummer Poetry Night

If anybody is on Long Island next week...

One from me:

Boys

Springtime and it is raining

Not hard

But enough to be wet

And for the mud to BE

Without being too much.

I run over the wet grass

Then dive

For the dipping frisbee

Skittering along full out

Acquiring a thin skin of mud

A splotch dots my cheek

Just right

A badge of honor without

Needing to taste it

Or wipe any off my face

Hours later, blue from cold

Soaked through

Mom will make me stop

Just inside the front door

To remove all I've gained

I'll smile an inward smile

Shivering

And shed the outward banner

But keep the inner pride

Having done so very well

In the mud and rain there is

Much more,

Than winning and losing the game

A separate score, unmentioned

Total mud and water accumulated

 

Throwback Thursday - Ruth Chew - and a blog Milestone

First, the milestone. This week BlogTheEclectic passed 2,000 page views. Thank you to everyone who contributed!

I know in the grand scheme that is not very many (I know many of you get than many in a day or week) but it made me excited to hit the milestone, especially since it is on a steep upward incline (over 550 page views in the last month, up from less than 100 only in December). So thank you again to everyone who came to look. Please share.

Now for the Throwback. As summer approaches (I'm in New York, schools are open for another month) I remember voraciously reading Ruth Chew's books. They had adventure, magic, history, interesting plots and interesting characters. I never was disappointed.

My favorites were Baked Beans for Breakfast, Summer Magic, and The Hidden Cave. I remember sometimes reading the entire book in a single sitting.

Feature and Follow - Summer Reading Favorite

 

One summer my friends and I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy from start to finish. That was fun, not only to read the books (which are great) but to do them as a kind of summer-long book club.

Another summer I tried to read all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. I didn't get them all done before summer ended (I read the Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of the Four after school started in September) and I couldn't get my friends to sign on, so it missed that element too.

Most summers I just read whatever I can get my hands on!