Oh, the summer night has a smile of light, And she sits on a sapphire throne.  ~Barry Cornwall

If you live in the Sonoran Desert as I do, summer nights are a respite from the heat of Tucson days.

Waking up to the morning’s brilliant sunshine blue skies and a light breeze, it’s easy to think, “Ah, to get outside.” But it’s best done before 9 AM.

But it’s a dry heat- Sonoran Desert ~ mantra/rationalization

There’s a certain amount of comfort in our ruefully stated weather fact. The humidity is low- think 13%. We may overdose on Refresh eyedrops and keep the sunhat companies in the profit column. But I don’t miss the instant moistness that can coat your skin with the humidity of my native state of New York. My hair does not fall flat nor curl up in the humidity. And we can escape up to Mt. Lemmon.

Temps here have been in the triple digits since June 17th. July promises to carry on this hot pattern. Leaving the house checklist: car keys, ID, phone, $ of some kind, WATER bottle, sun hat, mask (just in case). Check again for water bottle. The errand loop, walk, or posting the mail gets done before 10 AM at the latest.

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon… the two most beautiful words in the English language.   ~  Henry James 

The scorcher days bring a certain laziness and respite from “stuff that has to get done.” I stay inside. Hours can go by when I craft SoulCollage cards or my greeting cards. Everyone gets a handmade card sent with love and slightly crooked alignment of parts which I am adopting as my trademark.

The books on my reading table get switched out frequently. Sun-made tea is my outdoor hobby. Other people garden – I fill a 3-quart glass bottle with filtered water, pop-in 3 teabags and set it out on the back patio. This week’s favorite: Peach with Turmeric. Bring the bottle inside in the afternoon, pour a tall glass, add ice, maybe a bit of lime juice and go to the reading chair.

Yes, in summer we all live in the dreamy palace.   ~Mary Oliver 

Make your summer dream come true.

If a summer night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance. (revised a bit) ~Bern Williams

Muse on that one.

Ethel Lee-Miller blogs regularly about people, the power of words, and her writing life. She’s retired from professional writing gigs after 30 years of teaching, coaching, editing, and gathering writers to publicly share their work. She is the author of Thinking of Miller Place, and Seedlings, Stories of Relationships. These days, in Tucson Arizona, she writes to inspire, to connect with folks, and for the pure enjoyment of it. Ethel enjoys sharing stories at Odyssey Storytelling, Artists Standing Strong Together, and anywhere there’s a mic or a Zoom room.