August 17, 2011, journal entry, I Am Reminding Myself that It Is Still Summer

Five miles.

I am cold. I leave at six this morning for my run, and I am not convinced it isn’t Fall. I rub the goose pimples on my arms under my pumpkin-colored long-sleeve Coolmax shirt (though I still wear my purple running skirt).The slant of Sun also says Fall, when light begins bowing to dark. I suddenly don't have the energy for this morning run. I am not ready for the chill because August’s heat has just barely emerged. The Wheel of Seasons can’t have revolved this quickly because, in fact, the path through Hazel's Creek hasn’t yet dried, my running shoe sucked ankle deep in mud. Don’t get me wrong...I am looking forward to the Autumnal Equinox (how can I top last year’s Goddessfest with my Tattered Wings tattoo?! AND I have ideas for the third tattoo I shall get during next year’s Spring Equinox celebration…suh-WEET!).

But I suddenly realize, as I pull my foot from sticky mud with a slight sob, that I haven't seen the red-winged blackbirds in Hazel's Creek lately. Nor have I seen the orangy robins lately, those robins who arrived in February. I also notice the honking Vs of Canada geese that have begun to fly the skyways, and young eaglets and osprey fledge, practicing their wings.

I'm not gonna go far, I encourage myself. The 10K I’ve signed up to race this October (my first race since figuring out my hamstring/back problem) will sport colder, chillier air than this, its air crisp like Fall apple slices. I also remind myself that I always warm up and have regretted a run only a handful of times, so I wrap my hands in my sleeves and continue running, mud flakes sloughing off my shoe much like how the late Summer days slough off bits of light. I decide to remember the day is predicted to be in the 80's and that I shall visit the farmers' market today though I usually go Thursdays and Saturdays. The market always makes me feel wickedly wicked happy with their bounty of Summer harvest and jovial warm air, the companionship always and always boosting my mood.

So this year, Summer has been running…no…sprinting away from me, but I’m not gonna think about that now. I am wickedly glad I when I finish my run and wickedly enjoy the farmers’ market…and, of course tonight, there is always the sky blue pool.

{Wickedly wicked happy sigh.}

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Things that Remind Me It Is Still Summer…and Make Me Wickedly Happy

The farmers’ market and its array of colorful bounty. And the fact that I still have just over two months left of the market’s season! Today, I am ALL about the market…

~Yellow and orange watermelons. Totally worth the serious seed extraction effort.

~Green tomatoes I cook into fried green tomatoes…I think the southern girl is comin’ out in me…

~Orange raspberries from Mushroom Farmer Mo and orangy tomatoes. I’m tellin’ ya, once you’ve had a wicked fresh tomato from the farmers’ market, regular supermarket tomatoes just don’t cut it.

~Figuring out how to cook with tomatillos…I have absolutely no idea what I’m gonna do but I am wickedly excited about it.

~Same thing with the baby artichokes. I had absolutely no idea that artichokes are in the thistle family…I LIKE thistles and the thought of them and purply thistles makes me wickedly happy.

~A basket of cherry tomatoes that I typically don’t buy because I always feel like I am biting into a bug…kinda like raisins…but these…oh my goddess, these are red, yellow, purple, orange, white…WHITE and PURPLE tomatoes! So wickedly worth the slicing effort!

~The wooden coins of the farmers’ market.

~Today in 1907, Seattle’s Pike Place Market opened and is the oldest continuously operating farmer's market in the United States.

Huckleberry’s Natural Market’s wine steward Drew who can hold a wine glass with his cheek and who loves Wicked and Lady GaGa as much as I do (we think we were sisters in a previous life).

Fabulous sundresses and sushi with the Goddesses, dining outside.

Summer buggy beetly bugs.

The MOON! I just simply don’t know why I go loonier than a loon over the Moon in late Summer…oh, wait…yeah, I know why! Cuz I can actually see her! Cloudiness lingered way too long and seriously overstayed its welcome this Summer. Ugh!

Definitely and absolutely, water slides…to infinity and beyond!

And running…remembering that YES! I am running again, running alongside Summer as she runs into Autumn…and that makes me totally and wickedly wicked happy.

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GL, 8/17/2011. Prevail.