Summer Vacation

 A break is needed. A cooling down, a cooling off. The heat seeps in through the windows, entering on the stifling breeze, piggyback. Friends send photographs in faded colors, holiday snapshots of themselves poolside, feet up, drink in hand at the edge of the shot. Or images of hazy mornings on an empty beach, waves lapping gently up onto the damp sand, the sky a soothing blue, the ocean in calming shades of gray.

 Kicking up sand, gathering shells, a lifetime of walks on the beach early in the morning before the summer settles in for the day.

 “A real scorcher,” as the old men used to say, lined up in garden chairs down the sidewalk, pushing their hats further up on their heads and swiping at their foreheads with worn handkerchiefs.

 Plated Stories is slowing down. The heat of summer imposes, the dawdling dog days of summer. Trapped in the middle of the city like a fly in amber, the mornings are taken over by daydreams, the afternoons, one long restless search for comfort. Dogs splayed out on sidewalks, under trees, looking for respite; children dirty, sticky and stained with splotches of ice cream and syrupy fruit juice whine and fret. Windows thrown open, the city is quiet, no one is moving, snatches of noise, faint and distant, float in; someone sneezing, the rumble of traffic, a girl’s laughter.

 Plated Stories is slowing down, but hardly kicking back and doing nothing, idle hands not. A quiet break, concentrating on our work. Meandering thoughts, energy captured in short bursts, we two have pressing assignments looming, vying for our time, vying with the heat.

 Sleepy, listless days of summer, yet deadlines approach rapidly and our thoughts must be channeled into other projects. Patience, dear readers, patience. Pour a cool drink, place a scoop of sorbet in a fluted bowl, and wait for our return.

 A stroll on the beach, a week or so in the garden, a voyage of discovery on the other side of the world and we shall be back. But we will not leave you empty-handed. We will offer a few thoughts, a flourish of photographs to carry you through to the time we are back in full force, overflowing with time and energy and more stories to serve up, images and words plated for your delectation.