Summer Memories

Australian summer is very special. There’s something very nostalgic about the smell of freshly cut grass on the early morning air, it reminds me of weekends spent playing cricket. The incredible clarity of the waking sun, the smell of the Swan River nearby, the sounds of neighborhood kids grabbing their bikes; of dads out in their sheds. Mum’s secateurs snipping away outside my window (she’s been up since the first magpies starting warbling – the ultimate sound of summer). I once read the simile that a magpie’s song was like liquid diamond, or as honey in song – certainly it takes poetic licence but I’ve always loved it.

Later in the day, every kid in the street would be gathered together in one arbitrary yard, with every length of available hose like hatch-work over driveways; all these kids running about excitedly on the precipice of a gargantuan take-no-prisoners water fight. For the youngest kids, it was a stream of laughter and life without horizon; a timeless, vibrant moment. For the older ones, summer was also a time of young romance, and there was no better way to tell someone you love them than by completely drenching them.

This is the first illustration of the Summer Memories series (commissioned).

Caption: (Lyric) “Going To California” from Led Zeppelin’s untitled 4th album, 1971 (link)