Summer

Summer

Ah the aroma of summer is in the air, cut grass, barbecues, flowers and sweat. It really is a key time of year that one should choose carefully an adequate and suitable deodorant to ‘keep it all in!

Primary school was always a key aspect of my favorite season of the year, Would the sign be green? Allowing us little ones the permission to be the first to charge onto the school field and play army or some other game of warfare like kisschase or tig! I wasn’t too fond of kisschase but enthusiastically participated in army and I can still make a credible impression of a machine gun to this very day.

I rather enjoyed making daisy chains but got considerable chastisement from ‘the lads’ as it was a female pastime and to participate in such feminine entertainment was an experience I never fully indulged in, so army it was, and it was incredible what healing powers confectionary such as Refreshers, Tabs and Tic Tacs could have after being shot down by an imaginary Ak47 assualt weapon. By taking on board a ‘sugar kick’ it miraculously brought one back to life and gained a return to the battlefield until the dinner lady called you in for your turn at the dinner table.

As I had and still do a deep love of the delicately iced Chelsea bun I have mixed feeling about the dining area at primary school particularly in summer, the gestapo led supervision by those overlooking mealtimes did so we sniper like accuracy and could spot a left ‘blade’ of white cabbage at a 100 hundred yards and would strike with devastating effects if you attempted to conceal it under ones knife and fork or attempt to stick it to the underside of the table. The consequences could be devastating! The schedule for meals was intense and hard hitting, braised steak with mulched vegetables affected by a dessert of white custard and a sponge of some description was not for the faint hearted and difficult to swallow and if it wasn’t for my skill and anticipation to time my runs to the slops bin I swear I would still be sat there now whilst ‘mine fuhrer’  dinner lady watched over me as I wretched on a brussell sprout that had been burnt to a miniscule of its original purpose in life and just wouldn’t go down!

Somehow I made it back to the school field where the adolescents would be ‘playing’ in the long grass, a game of ‘you show me yours and I will show you mine’. I never went for that one and took refuge in a one man game of ‘roly poly’. I recall spending many afternoon classes covered in cut grass with a stench of creosote from where I had rolled so far down the field I went right through the rounders triangle and into the long grass where the infantile genitalia was being displayed and compared!

Afternoons were meant for studying, but I spent many a Summer pm gazing out of the window watching the ‘corporation’ cut the grass. I wanted to do that job and was alway intrigued by the big blades and the smell of workmen! Summers always seemed to be hot then, I spent endless hours leaning back on my chair, using the long suffering and dirty curtains as my support, occasionally the chair lost it balance and I would crash to the floor to hails of laughter and much embarrassment as another curtain ring pinged out of its intended location. The water fountain in the boys toilets was woefully inadequate and  as I crouched to get some refreshment and fluid on board to get me through to hometime, the dribble from the tap did nothing much more than dampen my shirt collar and wet my chin.

Yes Summer at school was both fun and frustrating, if it wasn’t  100 degrees the field was always out of bounds and coats were always to be worn in case of rain and the yard we frequented was both dangerous and incredibly tedious which the big boys controlled in dreadfully violent games of football and army sometimes at the same time!

Summer these days are different, I watch rather than participate in sports days, I observe my children playing, I supervise my wifes intake of wine or cider, I cut the grass, I walk the dog, I look out upon the countryside, and I make the tea. We have the BBQ on standby for the slightest hint of summer,  We cook our ‘local’ produce badly, its either parched to the point of being unidentifiable,  Am I eating a chicken breast or a deceased sausage from Iceland? I neither know nor care, alternately my consumed chicken leg is dripping blood and still quivering and has placed my entire family at high risk of contracting salmonella or a dreadful dose of the shits, all in the name of embracing a Lancashire summer!

Our garden is a festival of Summer,it’s like Glastonbury without the drugs, we have a badly worn trampoline, that probably irritates the neighbours, we have a gazebo, a swinging deck chair, we have a bird bath with no water, we have a solar powered water feature which drips at similar ratio to the primary school water a fountain, we have floodlights that  come on at four in the morning,  we have a washing line with an impressive array of family linen and underwear, we have a wonky shed full of garden tools we don’t use, we have a orange bistro set for the incredibly rare evenings where my wife and I can sit out with a romantic glass of red wine and watch the sun go down over my Asda ‘Y’ fronts and my wifes slightly faded knickers! We have a gnome, a pen for the large mice otherwise known as guinea pigs, we have an old toilet converted into a ‘garden feature’ we have a ornamental cat and numerous other bits and bobs that bring our garden to life. Not bad considering our garden is is only 12ft by 12ft!

Yes summer is very different these days but the recent warm weather has reminded me how joyful summer was and still is. Listening to my children playing, bouncing, shouting and being generally annoying  is a reminder of my own childhood and how much I love the Summer months. The buzz of lawnmowers, the sound of aircraft and the whiff of a burning quarter pounder, the racket of a water fight and the aroma of flowers is enough to make one put on the speedos and flip flops and indulge in the pleasures that the sunshine brings.

God gave us the seasons he gave us each other, he gives us the sun and he he gives us the rain. Whatever he gives is let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Till next time

May peace be with you all

Alex the anglican