Local Lifestyle

Mountain Musings — Summer, a welcome sight

by Kate Evans

“Summertime and the living is easy,” says the George Gershwin tune that’s sung in the 1935 “Porgy and Bess” opera.  That slow, gentle rhythm of the season starts to kick in just after Memorial Day weekend is over and schools let out for the summer.

The summer season is always a welcome sight with the lush deep green that covers everything after spring’s parade of blossoms and flowers.  Fields and yards are full of glittering fireflies and roadsides and meadows are lined with blue chicory.  Birds are singing happily and nesting with their young.  Other wildlife like deer and squirrels are busy grazing and scampering around with their little ones.

Pools open up for use for the holiday weekend and kids pack them if it’s warm enough.  Afterwards fishing, swimming and canoeing become regular seasonal activities and river and lake boat rides summertime adventures as families gather for picnics and barbecues with burgers, potato salad and corn on the cob.

Kids play catch, tag, Frisbee, badminton, hopscotch, hide and seek, kickball, softball, volleyball, shoot hoops and archery, climb trees and ride bikes with their friends for summer fun. There’s also hiking in the woods and picking colorful wildflowers and wild berries.

Mini-golf, summer camp, horseback riding, amusement parks, carnival rides, family vacation trips, rafting on the rapids, zoo excursions, baseball games and trips to the beach are just too much summertime fun.

Summer gardens fill with homegrown tomatoes, beans, peppers and squash and flower beds sprout irises, day lilies, daisies and lazy Susans. Mulching, hoeing, weed-whacking, fence adjusting and lawn cutting get added to the do list.

Outdoor grills are cranking with chicken, ribs and steaks.  Cantaloupes and watermelon, macaroni salad, and other salad dishes get placed   on the summer menu.   Hummingbirds do dances around their feeders and whirl through the front yard.  Butterflies joyously flit by with their luxurious colors.

Everyone enjoys cooling off with popsicles and ice cream cones and shakes and sitting on the front porch with a nice summer breeze.  Sitting down by the river in a lawn chair by the campfire listening to music is always a great way to spend a summer day.  Great jams and wonderful memories with friends.

Every Labor Day weekend at the end of summer is the Cacapon State Park Homecoming-a wonderful local event with music, boating, swimming, food, a silent auction and more.  It’s another local place full of treasured memories of performing music, taking photographs for the newspaper and enjoying the spectacular beauty of the park and people gathering with family and friends to have a good time.

Summertime has also brought performing at and covering the Morgan County Fair, playing music at the Patsy Cline Day at the Troubadour and enjoying the Morgan Arts Council’s summer music concerts at Berkeley Springs State Park. Other fun stops have been the Ice House art gallery, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, the Granary’s open stage and BlackCat’s open mic night.

More music and local events are planned for this summer.  Check out the listings of Ice House Friday night summer concerts and the Morgan Arts Council’s summer concerts at Berkeley Springs State Park in today’s Morgan Messenger’s Outdoor Morgan County supplement.

 

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