Summer Awaits!

 Do you ever wait for something and then miss it?  I do.  I have often thought I would have a summer party to celebrate the first day of its arrival...  In my mind, I invite all my dearest of friends, the animals of the forest (Bambi style)...  and the dear fairies and gnomes that people our summer garden, lily bed, and flowers.  The old troll who dwells in the creekbed could come closer to the bonfire I would build...  the trees, festooned with brightly colored, flickering lanterns resonate with the aromas of a summer's night.  Fireflies twinkle, and our merriment could not be contained.

 

Actually, I'm taking my mom to the dentist today.  I haven't planned such a party, and I am fairly sure it won't be happening on my lawn.  That is, to the human eye...   In my own imaginary world?  The festivities can still take place.  Midsummer's Night has always been a very special solstice event in my life...  It's just a few days before my birthday.  It marks the advent of Independence Day very, very soon...  And usually my daddy took his vacation about now to work in the hayfields of summer.

Haying time was a magical event in our household.  For one, my dad loved it.  His eyes began to sparkle the minute he started sharpening the sickle for his "big" (in my eyes) red tractor.  Then, with an eye to the clouds, he cut and raked and then baled the small, tightly-twined bales of fresh timothy.  The aroma of drying clover, grasses, and hay remains one of my favorite fragrances of all times (right up there with Mom's summer garden relish simmering on the stove) 

 Mom geared up for the summer haying time with lots of cooking, not only for my dad, but also for the men we hired to come help "put up" the hay...  Large crews of laughing young men surrounded our kitchen and dining room tables for several days.  They washed up in the yard on benches laden with fresh towels, bars of pure soap, and warm water heated on top of the stove and blended with cool water from the well pump..  I loved watching them dip the water in the basins, scrub their arms and hands, fling the water through the air and pat off the dripping muscles they were building in that hayfield..  I remember my grandfather's sadness as he aged before our eyes and wasn't able to work as he had been accustomed.  One particular year the crew called him "the old man."  I remember that he came inside, told my grandmother solemnly what had happened...  and then he sat silently brooding for a long while before his usual good spirits returned and he began to wryly joke about it...  If I do the math, he was about ten years older than I am now...  but I personally thought he was an "old man"  too  (although I kept that to myself.)

What will you be having for your Fairy Midsummer Party?  I know my fairies in my garden so well that my menu is planned!  We will have little plates of chocolate eclairs, frosted with moonlight icings in palest pink.  For our wee teacups, a blend of honey-orange tea spiked with just a breath of chamomile---  that's the recipe for a happy night followed by cozy dreams.

And the dragon flies will transport fairies from farther away... from your homes to mine if you haven't planned your parties yet...  So you'd better hurry and get your magical resident invited before it's too late..  Otherwise what a mass of floating royalty will fill the night sky in mid-Missouri...  For fairies know where they are wanted and where they are not...  Friday is Fairy Day, and it will all be to do over again.  One party after another!  That's the Fairy Way...  Please leave all the magical inhabitants a comment to let them know you are thinking of them this mystical Midsummer's Day.

I'm linking with A Delightsome Life as she shares her Welcoming Summer Blog Party!  Please visit all the lovely blogs that are celebrating Summer, the Queen for the season...