Summer's Coming of Age

Summer ripened quickly this year,the thermometer reads 96 very hot degrees. The rains have been a welcome smell, the sea breeze is slightly cooled, the property watered, and the rain barrels filled to the brim. However the true test comes in a sound with the evening, it's the Whip'O Will, and perched in the shadows right outside the kitchen windows of The Old Starkey House he sat calling all who would listen over and over he calls whipowill, whipowill, whipowill. He is hard to see, and non-descript for those who have had a peek, he is the highlight of a summer's evening, and in perfect harmony to the crickets, Cuban tree frogs, and the song of the cicadas. He is in my early memories of the Florida I knew as a young girl, he has called out in the dark night of a horseback ride, and on the misty marsh morning of Yeehaw Junction. This evening his song is sweet and my memories strengthened once again.