Fireweed Summer

It's time to add some bright colors to my blog. As you may have guessed, I love mother-winter very much, and have long learned to find her beautiful in all manifestations. But even I sometimes want not to find beauty, but for beauty to find me.

Let me show you a piece of summer in our area. I hope you will be pleasantly surprised at how bright it can be in our scarce color edge. Oh, yes, it won't come here soon, but it's good that people have come up with photos to convey their memories through the thickness of time. In this case, we will make a trip just 1 year ago, in July 2021.

And so, on that magical morning, I decided to take a little ride around the region, towards the south, just 15 km from my hometown. Driving over a small bridge across one of our hundreds of small rivers, I caught the first rays of the rising sun. It would be more accurate to say that it burst into my life with an unexpected sunrise from behind the hills. Just a week ago, the polar day ended and now we can meet the dawns.

Despite the fact that I have been living here for decades, I was knocked down. How contrast is the north. Once here in winter, you could not even imagine that such a bright and rich landscape is hidden under meters of snow.

All these trees, flowers and herbs sleep for most of the year in the arms of cold and darkness, but in their dreams they keep memories of our fleeting and so magical summer. Their awakening is sudden and swift. Every living being in this corner of the world, man, bird, blade of grass, insect and even microbes respond to the first rays of the sun with their whole essence.

Shaking off slumber, we absorb every photon that reaches our deprived land. Everything around begins to grow and get stronger as fast as possible. Being deprived of natural light in winter, from May to July we bathe in it. The sun gives us all of itself, and we never get enough.

Not out of greed, but out of gratitude, we are saturated with the endless rays of this beautiful warm star. Remembering what lies ahead. How brief this moment is, because in just a month gray autumn clouds will cover the skies.

Therefore, the riot of nature here looks so clear and obvious. These dense low trees, juicy grass and hills covered with Fireweed. Nature does not miss the opportunity to absorb all the available energy and throw it out in the form of a variety of life.

Yes, there are no roses and sunflowers growing here, there are no weightless tulips. Forest clearings are not replete with dozens of types of flowers. But this nondescript Fireweed is the most beautiful, because it is a symbol of our summer. Its delicate purple-pink shade perfectly reflects the atmosphere of these parts. Not bright, but beautiful, calm and peaceful.

Even the river slows down to enjoy this time of year, not to miss all this life around. Softly rustling its waters, it sails by, enveloping forests and flowers in mist, as if trying to touch these pieces of summer in order to bring the memory of summer further north, into the cold waters of the Arctic ...