Aug1

the first week of august.

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Watercolor by Conny Jager, Canadian Painter

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‘the first week of august hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. the weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of august is motionless, and hot. it is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.’

-natalie babbitt

 

*Natalie Babbitt 1932 – 2016, was an American writer and illustrator of children’s books. Her 1975 novel, Tuck Everlasting was adapted into two feature films and a Broadway musical. She also received the Newberry Honor and Christopher Award.

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92 responses »

  11. Fabulous find for the post today – water color and quote. I remember the book from growing up, but I never read it. It looks like an interesting read. Might pick it up before school starts. Currently reading another of your quotes – Matilda. Might finish it this weekend! Enjoy August, there’s promise in it.

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  14. I too thought that the painting was a photograph. Wow, beautiful! The quote perfectly describes August and depressed me a little..not that I don’t love a nice fall..just that I don’t love what follows it. And being a gardener, I mourn the loss of those long, lovely, warm summer evenings, watching all the mini garden wildlife and the scents that drift up from the flowers. Chris

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  15. Gosh, I wish it were that way this year! So far, what has peaked here was only the amount of rain that has been coming down for a month and the past two weeks, almost without a break. At least, the forecast says that the rain might stop by the middle of the week, and it is going to be slowly warmer. Maybe in 10 days we may have a visit of summer again before fall kicks in.

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  16. well, not here. we have, what I call ‘November weather’ – highly unusual, cold, wet, very wet, soaking wet…. but what a great, real-looking painting and so beautiful! Happy August – we celebrate the First of August, the Swiss National Holiday – since 1291 – with no tariffs…..

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  17. I am madly in love with that picture. It’a fantastic and gorgeous. This is my birthday month so August is a friendly month for me and the weather can be anything it wants to be and it rarely tells us ahead of time.

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    • I really thought it was a photo at first and it was my mother’s birthday today, and one my sister’s birthday on the last day of this month, both of them gone, but is it a good month. what date is your birthday ?

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      • I’m sorry for your losses. So hard to deal with losing those we love. Never goes away. Ever. My birthday is the 28th. And, I can see why you would think the picture was a photo. It’s really an amazing work of art.

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        • my mother was complicated, to say the least, but she was happy in her last years, and my sister and I were very best friends, almost like twins and she died in an accident in her 20s and told me when we were very young that she knew she would never live to be an old person. 2 sides of a coin. and there you landed in august as well, amazing how life is so very unpredictable.

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          • So unpredictable. Again, I’m sorry. I’m an Only, so no siblings. I can only imagine how traumatic that was for you. I know what loss can do to a person.

            My mom was just sad, with my father cheating all the time. It was a tough group. The women hated the men and the men didn’t care, so not a lot of good times, to say the least.

            The longer I live the more ridiculous life seems. The weird part is that I should have died so many times and each time, something saved me. Something weird. And I was never afraid of dying, so I lived. Those who really wanted to live are gone. How does that work?

            Just a play. When your part is over, you leave the stage. I seem to have lost the script.

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  18. I’d hang that painting in my living room immediately. Breathtaking. Thought at first it was a photo. The quote is also beautiful, but I grew up in Oklahoma where the first week in August just meant “now comes the REAL heat” and it ran into September. School never started before Labor Day because it was too hot and the schools didn’t have a/c.

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    • it really was, and it was both sweet and sad. I wonder if T would get into the action adventure books soon, like Hatchet? or even Robinson Crusoe? You know his sensitivities so well, and have to consider what discussions you want to get into, but because he loves the outdoors so much, I could see him getting into action adventure books at some point

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        • we had a literacy specialist come in once to talk to us about why boys sometimes shut down when it comes to reading or writing as they get into the later years of elementary school. he said that teachers, often mostly female in elementary schools, tend to run literacy programs like a book club, with books that girls have tended to be drawn to in the past, no grime, nothing perceived as violent, survival, roughing it, etc. and then sitting in a circle and chatting about it. not all boys or girls are into that model. he suggested some kids like to read and write about more adventurous and dangerous types of stories, explorers, survival stories, may have weapons, or things blow up, or they have to fight the water, climb mountains, get lost, etc. sometimes teachers would tell them not to write about this stuff or not choose books that had these things in them, and these kids would get bored and stop reading or tune out. (not to encourage ultra violent books or writing) but just knowing that some kids, especially boys in general are often drawn to more dangerous adventurous types of suspenseful stories, not so much the everyday, more a fantasy, an active, outdoor type of hands on story.

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          • I love that your school brought in a literacy specialist and the insight they shared is so wonderful. Boys and girls – just like men and women – do generally have different reading interests and tastes. And you’re so right about the adventurous. In the last 3 decades I’ve worked in public libraries, and more recently as an adult, there’s been a shift in attitudes towards media like graphic novels, which has since grown as a great entry point into reading for boys. T is currently reading a chapter book series about a series of villains trying to change their image into good guys. So you’re definitely right about the things that interest many boys with reading!

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  34. That watercolor looks like a photo. Simply beautiful. I found several autumn leaves on my patio last week, far too early, I thought. But I believe they fell from my neighbor’s dying maple. Not my maple, at least not what I could see. I love autumn, but am not ready for it yet.

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