Summer Senses

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 “And the heat was a medium which made this change of out-look possible. As a liberating power with its own laws it was outside my experience. In the heat, the commonest objects changed their nature. Walls, trees, the very ground one trod on, instead of being cool were warm to the touch: and the sense of touch is the most transfiguring of all the senses. Many things to eat and drink, which one had enjoyed because they were hot, one now shunned for the same reason. Unless restrained by ice, the butter melted. Besides altering or intensifying all smells the heat had a smell of its own - a garden smell, I called it to myself, compounded of the scents of many flowers, and odours loosened from the earth, but with something peculiar to itself which defied analysis. Sounds were fewer and seemed to come from far away, as if Nature grudged the effort. In the heat the senses, the mind, the heart, the body, all told a different tale. One felt another person, one was another person.” 

― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between 

As I write, the temperature outside is as hot as I've ever known it in this country. The Met Office records it at 39 degrees in Halifax . Hard to believe it's going to plummet by ten degrees later in the week. 

How does the heat affect you? I'm following the example of my cats and staying where it's shady and cool; hot weather makes me tetchy.

I love young Leo's description of the summer heat in 'The Go-Between'. It's a good tale and one of my favourite films, with a great soundtrack. I was taken to see it in Reading, in 1971 by my sister's then boyfriend (she was writing an essay at the time). I was at roughly the same impressionable age as the 14-year-old Leo. Click here for an interesting interview with Dominic Guard who played him. 

Keep cool and out of the sun. 

Writing prompts:

• What do you eat when it's baking hot? Do you shun hot food like Leo? Write about how your taste and eating habits change in sweltering weather.
• Do you agree with Leo that the sense of touch is the 'most transfiguring of all the senses'. Record your thoughts.
• What does the summer heat smell like to you? Does it evoke a time from your past? Write about summer smells.
• Are sounds different in the summer heat? Make a list of all the sounds you hear that are particular to summer. 
• Do you become, as Leo did, another person in the summer heat? Describe who you are right now.
• Have you memories of a favourite summer film. Write about it. Who did you go with and to which cinema? How did it make you feel?