I planned to watch this year. Maybe it was lack of competition from central air units, but this summer’s been all about sound. Here’s a baker’s dozen of my favorites:

  1. “Goin’ out!” followed by the banging of a door
  2. Frogs. Oh, how I love their way of filling the air with song.
  3. Birds. Ditto.
  4. Cicadas. The seventeen-year variety was novel enough and loud enough that they didn’t make me sad.
  5. The mews of newborn kittens, a sound we haven’t had here in five years
  6. The cries and rustlings of our newborn nephew
  7. Loons
  8. Motorboats
  9. Fishing line spinning out over the water
  10. Waves lapping against the rocky shore
  11. Children splashing in lakes, pools, and ponds
  12. “One more chapter?” over and over again as we read through Tuck Everlasting after breakfast
  13. Laughter

And you? What’s your summer soundtrack so far? Are there sounds you’d like to hear more of? There’s time left. Me? I’d take more laughter.