Still waiting for summer to start…
Originally published at CAT HELLISEN. You can comment here or there.
I”ve been waiting and waiting for summer to start, and then I realised longest day had come and gone and this was it. Now I understand why half of Scotland leaves for other countries during the summer hols. It’s very beautiful, but when your average temp is 11C I can’t say it feels overly summery to this poor African-born-and-raised human. I admit I really miss the beach right about now. Muizenberg may be a wind-testing tunnel in a giant experiment on human survival in extreme weather, but it has the most fantastic beaches. And while the ocean is freezing and filled with sharks and bluebottles, there are days you can swim in it. Probably. If you like to freeze in the water then be boiled and sandblasted when you come out.
Sheesh, I’m really selling it. I LOVE Muizenberg, but I am also honest.
Back to Scotland in summer, however. It is gorgeous. Lush, bramble-covered hills, and trees that shade out the sky with a high canopy of grreen, their trunks wrapped in ivy and moss, fields thick with poppies and cornflowers and a host of plants I do not the names of. Also, because this is Scotland - while there are no large dangerous animals that I am aware of - every plant is either thorny, jaggy, bristly, or sting-y. The vegetation clearly has it in for humanity.
Now that the summer school hols have started, I’m going to see if I can encourage the Spawn to come wander about with me and do some exploring.
I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog front because there’s been nothing going on. Well, there’s been plenty, but all of it personal and stuff. On the other hand, I have written a flash piece about Family and Migration, called Swallows, which I shared as a public post on Patreon.
YOU CAN READ IT HERE
And now I am off to edit this monster of a novel, because someone out there believes in it. 🙂