one thousand poems for summer

Summer, how many poems can one write for you? How many dreams can be found in your season? How many flowers? How many bees? How many sighs of relief and grass stains on the knees? This kind of today, where the sun warms you out of sleep and locks you in with every sunbeam. This kind of tomorrow, where you can't wait to see which tomatoes are ready for picking. Summer, you put rose-tinted specs on me and I find myself calling for you whenever you go away. Now that you are here, I watch you like an hourglass, slipping with sand as every second passes. If only I could find ways to slow you - like drinking iced lemon tea with sips and not gulps or sitting crossed legged in the garden instead of running into the city. 

Summer, you tell me what I already know - that life is beautiful and that it ends.

The dress I am wearing is from an online boutique called the kewl shop. If you read here often, you'll know I'm not one who wears a lot of fitted clothing. Maybe you'll find me in the occasional skin hugging blouse with a flowing skirt, but rarely do I show the shapes and lines which make me me. I think my reasoning is less to do with being self conscious of the belly and rump, and more to do with my constant quest for comfort. However, wearing clothes that show me exactly as I am can be a little frightening. Sometimes, it's easier to be hidden in your clothes like a comma, for there is more to be revealed, than to dress like an exclamation mark, which reveals much more. Wearing this dress was a gamble for me, but if you aren't a thrill seeker that takes to bungee jumping or deep sea diving, then wearing clothes out of your comfort zone is an easy way to add a little spice to your everyday life. I love the pale blue color too.

I wore it today and I'll wear it again. I wrote in the garden and now I intend to sleep by the marigolds.

See you soon.

outfit details: value village straw hat,  the body shop lipstick, the kewl shop dress
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my life in photographs

We went camping in Waterton. This was our morning view. I wish I always had a field of wildflowers and mountain air to walk through. I guess the birds singing in the backyard ravine will have to do.

 A mighty fine view for the morning hop and brew.

 Happiness is homemade toast and sunny eggs over the campfire.

A wasp stung me for the first time in my life. After all of these years gardening and running through the grass, it finally occurred when I was an hour away from catching a bus to a wedding and I had to hurry out the front door. Long live a high pain threshold due to a lifetime of chronic pain and playing sports. Here is a flower to start your day off right.

Summery sun and pretty petals growing all over the hills. Joy after joy after joy in this short but sweet season.

Eating pretzels, not crying your eyes out, drinking lemonade, flowers not tilting their heads and instead growing tall towards a blue sky. Reasons to be happy today.

This is how the garden looked after a few days in June. Now, it's starting to grow wide and tall. I can't wait to see how beautiful it will become!

Medicine for the mind.

It's flower pressing season.

 The lost and found.

Something very exciting came my way - I won first place in a songwriting competition. Yes, me, Amy, the one who has spent a lifetime searching for life's fruit. I feel like I'm walking in a bouncy castle and all the trees are blooming with their lilacs. I want to thank everybody here and beyond who believed in me. Being an artist of any kind is not usually cake and castles, but if you have been with me through it all then I thank you.

 Reach for the cosmos.

July has become the month of music - gigs here, gigs there, watching, listening, playing, moving, it's all so beautiful and interesting to watch the world unfold for me like this. I cannot remember the last day I felt boredom. It was probably before the end of May, when there was no garden to tend to and no gigs to prepare for. I live in this busyness, like I am a bee buzzing from flower to flower. I don't feel thirsty nor hungry, but sometimes I miss blogging regularly and keeping in touch with you. This is just the way life is and one day, it may all become so quiet again that you could hear a tiny mouse scurrying across the backyard grass. For now, I am living in the moment for it is all that I have.

Tell me, how is your July? What keeps you busy? What keeps you satisfied?
I'll be seeing you soon.

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the grassy hills of July

Breath has been delicate as I sing out with my banjo and guitar. I dream of stories to tell as I bring a bucket of water into the garden. I try to capture the sunlight on my strings as I put one foot in front of the other. I am both eager and confused by my busyness in July. There are festivals, there are campsites, there are rooms waiting for the singers and songwriters to loudly and proudly croon. Some days, I want it all even if wanting it all means missing the garden because I am too busy singing, but then on other days, I want to sing only for the flowers and the backyard sparrows. It is in this dilemma, I find myself grateful to be a puzzle piece. Tomorrow, it could all be taken away. Dreams for so many mean holding onto kite strings and hoping the wind never carries too heavy or dies in the air. 

I want to hold onto this, the way you might hold onto a summertime fruit, it's bounty is not endless, so you eat it slowly and savor the sugar even if it makes your hands sticky. If there ever was a place for music-making or realizing what kind of day today could be, it was in the grassy hills of July.

outfit details: eshakti dress
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