as summer starts to give up the fight

Walking along the trail she can feel the air around her body taking on a thrilling thickness as it kisses her skin. Even the shadows are sexy and unpredictable these days. As the sun moves lower in the sky she thinks how summer is giving up the fight. We’ll be waking in darkness rewarded with amazing sunrises. Snuggle up around the old stove outside grilling crabs and fall vegetables lazily sipping that luscious vionger. Butternut squash time she thinks. Risotto with caramelized onions, roasted butternut and shaved Manchego or lentils dense with lovely chunks of orange Delicata and freshly ground curry spices.

Lovingly her gaze wonders to the garden where tomato plants are shriveling next to breathtaking hued lettuce and kales. Peppers shine proudly deep magenta on their cold worn branches, determined to last another week or two accumulating as much sugar as possible. Those bad boys are getting eaten raw first, stuffed with cheese and grilled and roasted next to the last tomatoes in the end. Beet tops push through loamy soil promising a bounty in a month or two, little tops as soon as a week will garnish astoundingly sweet, fresh lettuces.

Apples are in for the season, resting in boxes in the cold cellar, waiting.
So juicy this year, snapping, crunchy, juice running down her chin as she chomps into it. Oh yeah, this is right and good that food should be so fresh, tasting of earth and love while nourishing body and soul. Eyes closed she tries to tease out all the different flavors blasting in her mouth and brain. Honey, alfalfa, pineapple all sparking a different idea or thought of what to do with those apples, cooked or raw.

Sun is sinking into a purple and pink horizon and the fire is waning as the day starts dimming down, she gingerly stands up and stretches like a sleek cat, as tempting sounds unconsciously escape her mouth. Mmmm, time to start dinner she thinks, or is it.