Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Summer musings



I miss the beach in the summer.  I miss the foggy  mornings, the cool temperatures, the salty breezes.  Moving from the beach to the foothills, foothills that are famous for scorching summer temperatures, made the transition bumpy.  I wilt in the heat, and I come alive in the fog.  Summers here have been a challenge, all twenty-three of them. 

But not this week.  Monday night, Rex and I waited at the train station for Madelaine, and we froze in the chilly wind.  This morning I got up, and the high fog of a coastal summer was in my foothill view.  No salty breeze, but it was chilly enough that I grabbed a sweater as I ran out the door.  A sweater.  In July.  Up the hill we drove, above the fog, and when I turned around to come back, I could see the layer of gray waiting.  For a moment I could imagine the ocean breaking against the sand just beyond the clouds.

My beach fix will be satisfied soon, but this morning it took all the discipline I could muster to not keep driving west.

I miss the beach in the summer.

4 comments:

herewegokids said...

:) Checking out your sidebar: not familiar w/ Sara Groves, LOVE the Sherlock series, and a ginger cucumber margarita sounds beyond awesome.

Alison said...

Oh Diane,
Please come to play at the Coastside. I will host you and you can relish all the foggy, misty moments at the water's edge that your heart desires.

It would be so much fun.

Di said...

Dear Alison,

I carry your phone number in my wallet, just in case. I'll let you know!!!

Love,
Di

chris said...

hi Di,

glad you got a 'taster' of beachtime.

it's striking how different different beaches are. like you, i'm no fan of heat, and i love the way fog softens the world (auditorily as well as visually (blurring edges and "matting" colors)). but, my experience of beaches for the last 25+ years has been of mediterreanean beaches (for the most part, in spring and summer), with a wife and kids who are there to "heliobask". so the last thing i associate with beaches is fog and cool (which i usually only find 1 meter or more above sea level). your sort of beach sounds much more to my taste than the ligurian ones i'm used to.

hope the writing exercises are still doing their un-sticking stuff...

chris

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