What is your relationship to summer? Take a minute to think about the summers of your youth, your adolescence, your early adulthood, your now. How do you connect to the season? Has it changed? Do you find yourself resisting it, embracing it, sending it mixed signals? Do you long for the respite of fall or sit still in its stagnance? Is it busy or quiet, lean or leaden?
A small opportunity, this morning, to sit with the season before it is gone, and write to find out what’s inside.
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If it’s an easier place to start: draw up a list of how your senses consume the season. What are the first tastes and sounds that occur to you?
One of the most intriguing lines in William Carlos William’s confessional poem, “Of Asphodel, that Greeny Flower,” which I’ve written about several times and continue to return to (nothing leaves us until it has taught us what we need to learn; I guess WCW needs a word with me):
“Begin again. / It is like Homer’s / catalogue of ships: / it fills the time.”
Sometimes I think about this line when I sit to write and find myself called to the same topics. Why the compulsion to write? What is it for, after all? And it calms me to imagine Homer cataloguing ships just because it felt good. And Williams sitting before his blank page simply to fill an afternoon.
So too for you, and whatever you feel like putting on paper today. Art doesn’t need to ask or give. It can just be. And you can always begin again.
In that spirit, here is my hyper-local, low-stakes catalog poem on the sounds of summer:
The torpid buzz of cicadas / Heavy, proximal thunder / Lawn mower hum / The sizzle of steak on a grill / The almost imperceptible click-on-and-off of the air conditioning / Waves crashing on a shore / The thrum of people talking on a beach blanket nearby, interrupted occasionally by seagull squawk and children’s play / A fan whirring slowly from left to right / The quaking of leaves in breeze / Frog song at night / Cannonballs into a pool / The whoosh and bottle-clink of an opening fridge / The earth in languid conversation all day long
Post-Scripts.
+Movies that feel like summer.
+Ingredients for a soft summer.
+An easy summer icebox dessert.
+The only margarita recipe you need.
Shopping Break.
+Seen at the top of this post: Landon’s tomatoes and peppers nestled against some of our weekly groceries, in the most spectacular wooden bowl from Etu Home. It’s under $100 but looks like it cost three times the price — really big and dramatic and heavyweight. Great gift. Could also be used to corral kitchen stuff, sunglasses, keys, etc.
+Lake Pajamas is launching its annual sale at some point this morning! Who doesn’t love a fresh pair of the softest pajamas on earth?! These are categorized under “regrettably worth it” purchases — just the cutest patterns and most comfortable sleepwear.
+Such a fun top with white jeans, and under $50!
+Be the best dressed wedding guest in this.
+I wrote over the weekend about my beloved red light therapy (LED) mask and meant to add that the company, CurrentBody, is sending me one of their sauna blankets (!!!) to test. OMG. I can’t contain my excitement. I love the sauna so much and Landon and I talk often about installing one in the back, heavily-wooded part of our property — like one of those wood and glass situations, Scandi style?! Can you imagine sitting out there in the snow or rain?! Heaven heaven. Anyway, until we get around to that — I’m so excited to be able to test with this. Will share all thoughts after use. One question is how will I work this into my already pretty indulgent self-care routine? We shall see. I think it will be especially treasured in the cold winter months. Anyway, my code – JEN10 – works on the entire CurrentBody site in case you’re in the market!
+One of my favorite jewelry designers, Lizzie Fortunato, is running an archive sale on Wednesday and offered us advanced access here starting at 9:30 a.m. The sale will include samples and past-season beauties at up to 70% off and sells out lickity-split every year. In general, the brand produces a small quantity of each piece; almost every time I link to an item I’ve purchased, it’s already sold out by the time it’s arrived. The best statement pieces.
+Perfect work-appropriate dress (in either the stripe or the solid!).
+A fabulous La Double J. This with tanned legs and barely there sandals for your next vacation.
+40% off cute kids lunchboxes here (thinking ahead!)
+While we’re talking back to school deals: OMG, dying over these ladybug Hunter rainboots (50% off). We call our daughter “Ladybug” — ! And a bunch of Fjallraven backpacks on sale here, too. I’d say these are better for travel than daily school because they don’t have a water bottle sleeve, but my son uses his quite a bit for little day trips and weekend travel. Great colors. Love the one with rainbow contrasting straps! And for us while traveling: ultra-light, lay-flat Longchamps in fun colors! I always toss a lay-flat, lightweight tote or backpack in my suitcase. So handy if you’re just running down to the pool or need to carry provisions back from the supermarket or whatever!
+Reminder that my professional-grade steamer is on sale for 40% off here. I paid full price – damn! Very easy to use and so much more powerful than anything else I’ve used in the past.
+I’ve basically ordered Landon a new terry polo each summer for the past three summers; this is this year’s. He wears them A TON going to/from the pool.
+Suzanne Kaufmann x Diptyque lip oil!!! Love this collab.
+Can’t stop thinking about this slightly saucy gingham dress.
+A very flattering pair of pants.
+Alice Walk just released a gorgeous new micro collection of woven pieces, including this standout dress. The tailoring and detail in each of their items is always PERFECT.
+Love this active half-zip in the punchy cherry red stripe.
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Cherry tomatoes on the windowsill / pool towels hanging off the patio / the smell of sunscreen
Surprisingly as a kid, I wasn’t in love with summer the way I am now – I love the ease of summer. It’s easy to get dressed, it’s easy to get outside, it’s easy to eat copious amounts of seasonal produce. It’s a joyful time.