A Summer Evening in Virginia
- Rebecca Drew
- Aug 6
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 7
Everyone should experience at least one summer evening in the South. Granted, many of those evenings are hot and humid sweat-inducing affairs. However, I had the pleasure of a perfect summer evening in Virginia.
It was July 1st, and I had just returned from a somewhat stressful day in North Carolina. My nerves were having trouble settling down, so I ventured outside to sit on the porch swing. The air was surprisingly balmy rather than fiercely hot. The far-off silhouette of the Peaks of Otter immediately calmed my system. The scent of honeysuckle wafted through the air, rousing me from my swing-induced stupor. When I reached the shrub at the top of the terrace, there were only a few blooms left, but they were making their presence known. Honeysuckle is the scent of my early childhood in Virgina. Serenity and safety. That's what standing next to honeysuckle brought to my kindergarten self, and decades later, it still brings that same sense of all-encompassing peace.
As I leisurely strolled across the lawn back toward the veranda, there was a change in the air. Admiring the various shades of green thanks to numerous trees along the riverbank, I noticed mists on top of the trees that extend further into the next county. That usually means a storm is approaching. However, the sun was still glowing through portions of luscious puffy clouds. Finally, I reached the porch swing again. The storm started speaking. I've never been good at detecting the direction of a storm based on sound, so thunder seemed to come from all directions. It did not sound unfriendly, though.
Even better, there were friendly shades of pastel skies, hardly what one would expect with a storm. Soft shades of pink, yellow, and orange were glowing across the sky. Excitingly, those same streaks appeared across the yard as the storm continued to brew. These streaks came from a southerly direction. North Carolina, perhaps? Eventually, the rain started to fall, and I went back into the house to enjoy some of the best sleep I've had in a long while.
