We try to take our dog on a field trip once a week, just to give her some new sights and smells and not to mention a thrilling opportunity to ride in the car!

Today my daughter and I went over to the field near the middle school and local cemetery. I loved the way the trees in the cemetery undulated in the breeze, so I hung back and shot this video with my phone. It kind of reminded me of Fangorn Forest in Return of the King or the jungle at the beginning of Apocalypse Now. That’s Coco at the bottom, about one-third of the way in from the left, checking things out along the fence.

This is the last Friday of summer, which always makes me sad. I’ve been a teacher for many years now (starting as a TA in grad school). I often wonder if I’d notice the change of season or feel the loss of summer quite so acutely if I weren’t tied to the academic calendar. Maybe I’ll find out someday when I retire.

However, it occurs to me that if it turns out I’m no longer sad about the end of summer once I’m retired, I’ll probably start feeling nostalgic instead for the way I used to feel sad about it when I was working! 😂