If summer wasn’t so short, I’d have a right to complain about this or that. How it’s too hot for hiking – but then, that’s great for swimming. Or too cold for swimming, which is actually nice for Peaches and hiking. This summer it’s been both.

Right now – it’s a warm spell. I just got out of the lake: I could have floated around forever. I don’t know what the neighbors make of my inner tube slowly drifting about as I loll in the tepid water of a summer heat wave, so happy to be in the water on a day like this – before the thunder storm hits and the weather turns….

I put my swimsuit on right after returning from the too hot woods. Tomorrow or the next day in cooler temperatures, that area will be my heaven. I’ll be up there, walking along, pruning all along the way. This is a genetic predisposition(?), a habit I picked up from my mother. My mother would always have a decent size (large long) clippers in hand. whenever she set out. I don’t think like that. I notice and pull and get a handful of thorns time and time again. I’ve cleared the trail, but ouch!

Which is all to say: bless summer.

I was recently at Squam Lakes Association’s annual meeting. That afternoon, at the transfer station, I met the young man from AmeriCorps who is in charge of trail stewardship, and I mentioned my compulsion for trail clearing, I was immediately signed up as volunteer steward for a whole area. Only afterwards did I think to tell him that I do love those woods, but I hike only a fraction of what he allocated to me.

I emailed him, but then thought to myself, this trail in my care could mimic the ones I found in New Zealand years ago: well maintained at the start, less so as you got further in. But any love is good love. And many people only hike small distances.

Day by day, I watch the trail bikers scoot by on their nearby recently added trails in the woods. I watch the boats speed out across Squam Lake. I don’t own a trail bike. Or a motor boat.

I want summer to last a long time. Go slow. Pull some intrusive plants along the trail… bob around on my beloved inner tube.

This is a good place for little ones. I can see the grandchildren loving their time here next year. For this season.

Summer.

Which is never a long enough.

No complaints – Peaches