Goodbye August

Another August 31 has come, this year bringing my 26th birthday.  It's a good day in Seattle - sunny and upper 60s with a light breeze, no major tragedies reported by this morning's Times, a day off work and thus a good solid run under my belt, continuing engagement with the John Nash biography A Beautiful Mind.  The stuff of ordinary for sure. 

On the other hand, goodbyes for me are more about nostalgic remembrance than ordinary, and so this goodbye August day, there are a few things I miss despite the nice weather and free time well spent in Seattle. 

In Kansas in late summer the sunflowers grow wild.  They take over the ditches.  Their deep, bright, brilliant yellow is the signal of autumn and football and the turn toward winter.

In southwest Missouri in late summer the evenings cicadas sing in the plentiful trees.  The evenings are warm enough that a walk in just shorts and a t-shirt is quite pleasant. 

In central Tennessee in late summer the trees are full of green leaves.  Vanderbilt's campus is an arboretum, and late summer hints at what always promises to be a gorgeous fall.   Deciduous trees are everywhere, and so autumn stretches long and colorful on toward Thanksgiving. 

Today I can't quite capture in words how much I miss these things.  Perhaps late summer in Seattle will someday have its own charm and energy.  My hunch is that instead I'll just need to plan a vacation back east for next late summer.