There are so many seasons, overlaid like layers of paper – like one of those books with separate flaps you had when you were a child, so that you could create a clown with a ballerina’s body and farmer’s boots, or a spaceman with a gingerbread tummy and toddler mary-janes.
There’s the calendar year, of course, but I don’t pay much attention to that. The academic year still runs my life – new shoes and pencils in September, a surge of freedom in July. This year we’ve had Big Exams in our house, so Exam Season has been stressier than usual. Hay Fever Season is another biggie – I watch the pollen report, even though there’s not much I can do about it. The farming year dictates the smells, the mud, the dust, and the likelihood of getting stuck behind a tractor, and Grockle Season started early this year – an outbreak of windbreaks and pop-up tents on our local beach as the visitors invade; caravans and campers on our deep, narrow lanes. Our local ice-cream vans come out in March and disappear in October. The first cone is the start of something – I’m not sure what.
We skin-swim all year, and suddenly it’s a pleasure, not a penance. We look a little slant-wise at the people swimming in wetsuits. They are missing out on the fiercest sensation of all.
seasons shift and flow
suns rise and set, tourists swim
the sea is always there
An unconventional haibun for Jilly at dVerse.
What a fascinating glimpse of your life.
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“Grockle Season”!! I want to have that. When the air feels all feathered. Wonderful write. The last line of the narrative is fiercely good.
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This is redolent of life in the country (reminded me of my growing-up years) and splendidly written!
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Skin swimming and cold chills…only the strong survive!! :>)
dwight
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Nice sentence: “The first cone is the start of something – I’m not sure what.”
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What a beautiful collection of seasons….loved the all (except exam season. 🙂 )
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Love those seasons, the grockle one in particular… a time to be different and show them who is local I think
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Oh this is such a wonderful write! You’ve shifted in and out of so many seasons….new kigo….I especially liked these words “We skin-swim all year, and suddenly it’s a pleasure, not a penance.”
Perfect!
Your post reminds me of the pediatrician we had for our children (our kids are now 41 and 43!). He was also a good friend. Kids used to call him Dr. Walrus when they were little and couldn’t remember his name….it was Wallace 🙂 Anyway, he always used to say he knew it was spring when he got his first telephone call from a parent whose child had put a pussy willow up his nose! 🙂
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Send grockle season my way. It sounds wonderful. Tourists leave and the sea remains.
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Such a fun glimpse into your life. I cannot begin to imagine skin-swimming in the weather you have, even in summer. Strong stuff of which you are made–like my North Dakota husband.
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I admire the seasons of your academic life and I gained a new insight specially with the Grockle Season~ Skin-swimming is fun, smiles ~
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there are many ways to count the time…(K)
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