TheBanyanTree: August 2003

[B Drummond]

August begins with an auspicious air as crepe myrtles covered with 
shocking bright red blooms brighten our days.  The ravages of the 
Japanese beetles on them are now just memories from a mere 50 days ago.

Days are sultry but not oppressive; the nights sufficiently cool to 
sleep comfortably without air conditioning. Rain visits most afternoons 
or, on occasion, in the early evening and lightning fires the skies 
with flashes from cloud to cloud, darting in tongues that appear and 
disappear so quickly that you find yourself trying to limit blinking 
your eyes so as to not miss even one.

Some nights as fireflies blink, dart and dive over fields of hay, 
thunder approaches from the distance and brings a wind that scatters 
the fireflies.  Lightning appears. So bright is it that it pierces my 
closed eyelids.  The thunder becomes a frightful booming and rain 
mercilessly beats the hapless enamored fireflies into the ground.

Shoots from the base of the pampas grass have started their ascent and 
are soon to swell 'til they burst their ends in a show of plume that 
would make all but the most vain of peacocks jealous.

An auspicious beginning for my fiftieth August, one proudly showing 
that a month can indeed live up to its namesake. 



  
   bd
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