SUMMER DAYS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

That time of the year again! Everything smells just lovely and the sun stepping forth seems to be wrapping us with her radiant and warm rays. As a child of nature I love all seasons and, although summer is the least favourite of them, I cannot deny its wonders: floral blooms, the earth slowly warming up and the summer-infused breezes.

What I particularly love doing this time of the year (and every other time of the year really) is spending time by the countryside, where the sky is cornflower blue and every and each petal is stretching to the sky as if they’d be thanking the dark, gloomy clouds blown away by the wind for the rain that had been falling days before. There is a particular rhythm to the birds’ song that I found different from their chants throughout autumn, for example – a more cheerful, more joyful chant. Everywhere I look rainbows are scattered (poppies, crocuses, daffodils) in the hues of green. Honeysuckles, soap roots, white bedstraws, periwinkles. Wrens, bullfinches, jays, long-tailed tits. Free, yellow and bright. Strawberries, spring onions, chamomile.

Each summer day brings new masterpieces, turning the frameless scenery into a warm, colour-filled land in which the gentle breeze is ever-present and so is the warmth of the sun and the soaking rain when the soil and leaves need it the most. Patches of blue and violet, patches of orange and yellow in which one can do nothing but perform a barefoot dance. The gift of the present which we shall be eternally grateful for and make the most of.