Eté

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.  ~John Lubbock

I feel so enraptured with summertime this afternoon.

Sitting here on the couch, my short legs tucked up underneath me...

...shoulders and feet bare to the caress of the wind...

...sunlight streaming in through the partially-opened screen door...

...two very energetic dogs playing beside me...

...sipping at the tart sweetness of a pomegranate IZZE soda and nibbling at the corner of a dark-chocolate-raspberry swirled square of decadence...

...I feel lost in the wonder that is summer.

There are sweet and beautiful memories that I have already made with people that mean the world to me, and those that I will continue to make in the coming months.

There are pictures to be taken, green tea to be sipped, and shady trees to be climbed.

There are new novels in which I must lose myself, and an end-of-an-era premieres at which I must weep until my eyes ache.

There are fresh strawberries to be bitten and savoured, and the aroma of flowers to inhale.

There is so much sweetness to take in before the silvery winter with its peppermint snow comes again.

Summer is barely half over, and there are still one hundred and one dreams to be chased.

Estate.

夏

Verano.

Eté.

Summer.

I question not if thrushes sing,

If roses load the air;

Beyond my heart I need not reach

When all is summer there.

~John Vance Cheney  

Fleurs et du Thé (Flowers and Tea)

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.  ~Henry Ward Beecher


The attributes of summer are endless.


I've probably written ten posts so far just on the glories of summertime, and each little wonder just waiting to be uncovered with each fluttering breeze...


...each one more hypnotizing and more beautiful than the next. 


Fireflies and fresh air...sunsets and dust motes captures in rays of brilliant sunlight...cotton sundresses and bare feet...Jane Austen novels and the tartness of lemonade...all set to the tune of Regina Spektor and Owl City.


Can it get any better than this?


Oh yes, I truly think so.


I honestly believe that any of these beautiful attributes of summer can be amplified with a steaming mug of tea and a wandering stroll through a floral-scented garden.


There is magic found in the bottom of a mug of tea. 


There is whispers of fairy dust and early morning mystery found in dew drops clinging to daisy petals. 


Whether it's curled up in a soft leather chair in a local coffee shop, Harry Potter between my fingertips and a flower tucked behind my ear...


...or standing in the middle of a wide open field, soft grass between my toes and a straw hat hanging down my back, my hair long and loose in the wind and a blanket spread and waiting beneath a maple tree...


...it's that fragrance of tea and rose petals that lingers...


...and that turns even the most commonplace of locations into a summertime fairyland. 

tea leaves

                                                                                                  tea loves

loves tea

lives tea

leaves tea?

never.

~Uniek Swain