e-500 50mm 1/250 f/8 iso 100

this is the first summer-that-never-came i can remember in years and years, it's late august now and while there have been some wonderful summer days, and even a few of those forever warm summer nights, for the last few months, for the most part it's been a bit surreal, not at all what i've come to expect after two decades living here.

and it's not that the bad days are awful - it's hardly snowed and even the rain and the wind have been summer-gentle. but that's not much good either as a long hot summer breeds sometimes immense and dramatic storms and whatnot, warm and wet and thunderous and then over as suddenly as they began. and we've had none of that either. summer 2007, not yet over and maybe not just yet feeling that way, and despite the huge record high temperatures in early july, i declare pretty much decidedly milquetoast in both character and presentation.

then again, life can't be all that bad if the most one has to complain about is a few cloudy days. and, most likely because of the mauvais weather, the flowers all summer long have been the most beautiful i've ever seen.