The Mountains Sighed This Afternoon

Winners of the Coddiwomple Bags

I swear I felt the mountain sigh this afternoon. The heat and humidity, the rain showers, and the smoke from western forest fires were all replaced by the most delicious September cool. We are only one month into summer, but I can feel the tendrils of what is coming. 

May through July is a fitful stretch here in the mountains. Hot spells and swarming pests, humidity, and rainstorms. The air quality, something I never used to concern myself with, can be downright dangerous to these damaged lungs. 

Like my friend Terese, a fellow hiker, I lay in wait for August to arrive before hiking becomes joyful to me. We are still ten days away, and more heat will surely come, but glimpses of the golden season are upon us. This excites and tickles my senses. Even as I write this from our backyard, I am wearing a sweater as the flames pop and dance in our fire pit. This is the first evening this year we’ve sat out here.

The warmer months of 2021 have been particularly strange. June was one of the drie…