We’re in the heat of a Goodboys Invitational weekend, and it looks as if today we’ll be dodging thunderstorms. A perfect day for a lovely July poem:

“Across the open common land
shines glowing purple floral blooms
The bumble bee can hardly stand,
as flowers’ scent is rising fumes

And lies there in the summer shade
a resting deer quite joyfuly
for in this beauteous sunlit glade
all’s observed by sent’nel tree

This tall oak stands by sparkling stream,
whose water splashes grass and rock,
reflecting in its azure gleam,
the woodland plant and dandy clock

While goes beneath the cloudless sky,
amidst a warm and dreamy breeze,
a squirrel idling, passing by,
past numerous, careless, floating seeds.”

– Stephen Patrick, Sleepy July in Skipwith Common

(Hat tip: egreenway.com)