My New Zealand Summer

Quiet Saturday morning stroll with Dog

The forest walk like the back of my hand –known and loved and part of me

This time of year – the best of summer – expectation of sunshine and heat

As we walk I breathe in the sights and sounds, the smells, the feel of Summer

The feel: overwhelming at times, an almost impenetrable fortress of heat

Hits me in the face, until trees create a welcome tepid shadow

Interspersed on occasion with only the gentlest zephyr to cool my sweat

The smells: Pleasant smells of native forest and introduced pine sometimes mixed

with the aroma of gums – a fragrance, a spice, delightful scent not taken for granted

Too soon replaced when summer gives way to autumn

The sights: Ten thousand shades of green and brown, bright light and shadow

Trees, and sky of boldest blue, streams and rocks; leaves and grasses and gentle fronds

Flitting fantails delight in the dance; heavy kereru startle the unsuspecting;

Tuis sing from treetops then swoop on by in search of another, a better perch

The sounds: Ubiquitous music of summer tinnitus – the constant din

Deafening intensity of happy cicadas doing what happy cicadas do

One man’s tinnitus is another man’s chorus