I looked up from my work today and noticed there are a few red leaves on the scarlet oak.
Although the crickets are still hard at it, desperately wanting to mate before it gets too cold and their chirps wind down like clockwork, I suddenly realised that our long New Zealand summer is drawing to a close. A small, fleeting sweet-sad wave of happy nostalgic loss washed over me. It felt like the brown grass under paddling pools, crunching the leaves, and first frosts.
There's a tune - 'Theme From a Summer Place' - that perfectly portrays the feeling I had today. I was three or four years old when it was first released.
how strange that only yesterday I was mindlessly letting some radio programme wash over me and it was all about crickets and how their "chirps" relate to temperature - because they are cold blooded or so it would seem. I wasn't paying very much attention because I was concentrating on some other insignificant task that seemed really important at the time - I think they call it procrastination!
ReplyDeleteI saw "A Summer Place" as a young man and loved Percy Faith's music. I think (without checking) that the movie starred Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee and Richard Egan and one of those Dorothys (Malone or Mcguire, I can never remember. I mean, I remember the actress's face but I can never remember which surname fits with it.)
ReplyDeleteYes the trees are starting to turn. My time in NZ this visit is coming to an end. Somehow, though, this 'summer' has been less of a summer here in Hawkes Bay than any other I've known.
ReplyDeleteA Fox - well, in six months you can time the crickets yourself... Re procrastination: I am the Queen.
ReplyDeleteRobert - This type of music is not usually my preference, but it is so evocative of my childhood (which was nice), that I find it very soothing. Was the movie good?
Geeb - yes, it's been a slow end to the summer this year. And of course you are Godwitting-off again soon: 24 days to go!
You're quite right Katherine the tune is perfect. ( Don't know if I ever saw the movie either). Our summer is lingering still and the beaches are full of happy families who are having a great time after a wet Summer but I am hankering for some cool weather.
ReplyDeleteWe've spent the afternoon watching MovieMakers of our holiday in England 4 years ago. As close as we will get this year I'm afraid but fingers crossed we are planning for next year. How long till you go? I'm hoping to get my England fix through you this year so I hope you plan on blogging about your trip.
Cheers
Helsie, thanks for dropping in. We'll be going NEXT year... same as you. Perhaps leaving end March? I think I should do some posts continuing the story of our previous trip which was further back than yours - 6 years ago!
ReplyDeletePerhaps that will keep us both going.
Do you think we should make a 'date' to meet up somewhere for, say a shandy and a ploughman's lunch in some cute pub?