Midsummer

High summer saturates the senses: vivid greens across the forested hillside, deep blue skies and deeper blue seas, blazing sun and heavy heat, partially dispersed by the cool breeze off the bay.

Cicadas dominate the soundscape with an otherworldly buzz that fills the daytime air. However, when evening comes they fall silent, leaving room for the trailing cries of evening cicadas and the calls of birds as they fly to roost.

New flowers burst into bloom to replace the blossoms of spring: blue balloon flowers, Japanese pink lilies, sweet-smelling pink silk trees. In the higher reaches of the mountain, Japanese maple trees launch twin-lobed seeds that spin like helicopters as they fall.