As Labor Day weekend signified the end of summer for most folks — despite there being, technically, three more weeks of the sun-filled season — I must say my summer didn’t close with much of a bang. It did, though, end with a few other B words of note. A few of my favorite B words, in fact.

BOOKS and BLOOMS

I love to read. I typically snuggle up with a book only at bedtime, though. Which means I take longer to get through a book than one might expect as lately I’m ready for shut-eye after reading just a handful of pages.

But over Labor Day weekend, I actually sat down with a book in the middle of the day. On two of the holiday weekend days!

I recently started Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman, “… a magical story of love and loneliness, of terror and human frailty, of the mystery and grace of ordinary experience…” per Goodreads. I’ve been a fan of Hoffman since Practical Magic, so spending daytime hours devouring a chunk of this book was a holiday treat (and bumped me over the halfway mark, according to my Kindle app).

I also spent time on Saturday and Sunday photographing my gorgeous Peace Rose … with my DSLR, not my iPhone camera (which is an 8 … with no portrait mode or similarly spectacular settings).

The top two were taken Saturday, the bottom two Sunday. Such progression to pink in mere hours!

I’m pretty positive this one’s the last bloom of the season, so I wanted to capture its transition from yellow to pink as fully as I could. I think what I managed to get will get me through til blooms burst next June. Maybe.

BENJAMIN and BALLOONS

Another of my favorite B words is Benjamin, of course. And I got a smidgen of early morning time with the boy I most often call my Sugar Baby at the Labor Day Lift Off.

The annual balloon festival runs all weekend long, with options for viewing balloon lift-off each morning and the “Balloon Glow” Saturday and Sunday evenings. Despite needing to rise at 5 a.m. to find street parking and a spot at the park, Jim and I chose the liftoff option on Monday.

Brianna and Patrick had taken Benjamin and James to the Glow one of the evenings but James pleaded to attend the liftoff, too. So they rose before the sun on Monday morning and began the balloon fun smack dab in the center of the blowing-up and lifting-off action. After several balloons were airborne, the family ambled on over to the more quiet end of the park where crowd-averse Jim and I had plopped our chairs for watching balloons rise over the lake.

We had about 10 minutes together of balloon-watching. Which was plenty of time for me to snap a few special shots of Benjamin’s first time enjoying hot air balloons — joy being the operative part for Big B.

Benjamin watches balloons emerge over treetops, with brother (another b!) james and daddy

The only B word missing from my holiday weekend? Boys. As in my desert-dwelling grandboys named Brayden, Camden, and Declan.

That said, BOYS — those boys — will mark the official start of fall for me. Jim and I have a visit with those goofy guys scheduled for the weekend after autumn officially begins.

Yippee!

Whether starting a season or ending one, there’s no better way than marking it with a B. At least for me!

Today’s question:

What marked summer’s end for you?