The signs of summer have returned to Lawrence and Douglas County. School is out, the Wakarusa Festival has come and gone, the streets are torn up and under construction (seemingly in ways designed to maximize drivers’ frustration), and the heat of the season is slowly settling in. I think that one of the most wonderful things about college towns is that they adopt the rhythms of the academic year.

In the 12 years I’ve lived here I’ve actually come to enjoy spending the summers here rather than away. Many folks in these parts like to get away at least for part of the summer. Faculty often use the summer for research and travel to distant places to use libraries or view art or do field work. Other folks like to flee the heat and look for mountains or coastal climes where they can swim in the ocean and eat fish fresh from the briny deeps.

But I’ve come to like staying right here and watching the summer play out. The heat can be unpleasant, but, as I get older, I appreciate its effects on my arthritic joints more and more. And I’ve come to see the changing colors of summer, when the grass goes from the green of our rainy May and June to the brown of our dry July and August, as beautiful in their own right.

The summer also brings out more wildlife in the country where I live. The deer are more plentiful and bolder and the raccoons openly plunder our sour cherry tree.

I’ve also found that there’s a lot to do in the summertime here. The signs for Lecompton’s Territorial Days’ celebration on June 23 and 24 are up now, along with notices of the pancake feed that accompanies it. And the estate sales and the country auctions are just hitting their peak. There are almost too many to contemplate. Just last weekend we attended three. After the long winter’s dry spell in the auction schedule, it’s exciting to have so many options.

And, of course, there’s the pool downtown; sometimes I enjoy just walking by and listening to the children laughing in the cool water. And the band concerts have begun in South Park and on the Fourth of July there’ll be fireworks. All in all, there’s an immense amount to do.

For me, at least, summer here is a vacation in itself. It’s a time to read and write and contemplate the blessings in my life, a time to enjoy the local community, a time to walk on campus when it’s quiet, a time to sit on the porch at dusk and watch the deer. Summer in Kansas, what more could one want?