Days are shorter, but summer lingers on

On our 6 a.m. walk this morning, my wife noticed that it was not as bright as it had been. Well, we are past the summer solstice, I said. After six months of steadily longer days, daylight is shrinking again. The sun is rising incrementally later and setting slightly earlier each day. Tomorrow's sunlight, according to Weather Underground, will be 15 seconds shorter than today's. Although the solstice is past, we still have many sunny days ahead — and much hot weather.

In my wife's garden, the blooms are prolific, and these colors will last a few more months before the chilling frost that accompanies longer nights will send the flowers into hibernation. The daffodils and azaleas that first heralded spring's arrival a couple of months ago have folded their cards now, but they have been replaced by a variety of blooms whose names I can hardly keep track of.

But I do know the name of the hydrangeas, whose colorful and intricate blooms are a source of fascination and whose thirst for water keeps me alert to early signs of wilting. Our hydrangeas are doing well enough to make me want more, to see them grow to head-high and to flourish with innumerable blooms. There is a simple satisfaction in growing things. My parents thought toiling in a garden was worth it only if the garden produced edible results; mere flowers, no matter how beautiful, could never compete with a succulent tomato, a mess of butterbeans, a bushel of sweet corn, or a pod of okra. Beauty was not a goal; survival was. But I have been granted the great luxury of time to stop and smell the flowers.