Summer Nights

The older I get, the more I dislike winter. While I’m not a fan of the many 90+ degree days we’ve had in June and July, I don’t like cold weather. Spring, summer, and fall are much preferred.

Summer is prime lawn mowing weather. Some folks dislike mowing their lawns. I have never minded it, even as a kid. As a kid, I thought we had a huge yard. Most of the houses were pretty close together, and were on deep but narrow lots. We had two empty lots on our property, so it seemed immense. Today, the yard for our home is ¾ of an acre. That is a big yard. It takes me an about hour-and-a-half to do the riding portion of my lawn mowing activities, and another 20 minutes or so using a push mower to trim. I enjoy listening to a headset radio as I mow, listening to oldie stations. It is pleasant.

Another great thing about spring and summer is the lengthening of the days. It becomes really evident by March, and my favorite months for increased daylight are May and June. I love seeing the first hint of light framing the bedroom window shade at 5:30 AM. It is always a little sad after the summer solstice, as each passing daybreak comes later and the sunset earlier.  

In summer, I enjoy seeing a variety of butterflies flitting over the fields, our yard, or the wife’s flower boxes. Still, the one thing I look forward to each summer is the arrival of lightning bugs! Some call them fireflies, but they have always been lightning bugs to me. Flies are a nuisance, so the term firefly to me conjures up an image of a flaming pest buzzing around a dead animal in the middle of a highway. Ugh.

For me, the term lightning bug describes this little creature perfectly. Like miniature flashes of lightning, each insect lights up his or her little section of the world. When you get to witness thousands of them as we do in our rural setting, it is truly amazing. I spend many nights on the patio watching the lightning bug follies each summer, with numerous mosquito bites to show for my effort. I guess that is the price of admission for the light show.  

As a kid in my “big” little yard, I saw lots of them, too.  I would catch some and put them in a jar as kids often do, with air holes poked in the lid. The air holes didn’t help much evidently, since their lifespan in captivity was rather limited.

This year was an unusual year for lightning bugs. Well, obviously this is an unusual year for many reasons, and it shows no signs of even remotely returning to normal anytime soon. I maintained my June lightning bug vigil, waiting for the first burst of light at dusk. I really didn’t notice any until the first day of summer, June 20. It was a minor light show, but it was the first sighting for me in 2020. This was the latest I can remember seeing them make their annual in many, many years.

Just as I like to see the light around the window shade at 5:30 AM, I love seeing the 5:00 AM lightning bug flirtations. It is still dark, but every few minutes a lone firefly will light up the pre-dawn landscape. Soon, a few other will light up in response, often hundreds of feet away. Then darkness again. This pattern repeats again a few minutes later.

I suppose the hot, dry conditions contributed to a shortened lightning bug season this year. I still see a few in the evenings, but their time spent with me this summer is quickly drawing to a close. I will miss them.