May we "live long and prosper"

First, will whoever keeps asking "what else could go wrong?" please just STOP! Thank you!

Second, the title quotation is a Vulcan greeting from the original Star Trek series. 🖖 (Civil wars nearly destroyed Vulcan until logic prevailed.) We now return you to our regular programming posting.

four whitetails at pear tree

Photo by J. Harrington

Last night, between sunset and dark, four whitetail does visited our pear tree. Ripe pears have started dropping and gusty breezes will accelerate this autumn's pear fall. Watching the deer, and the birds at the feeders, and the increasing leaf colors of autumn, provides us a lifeline to the sanity and peace of wild things.

It looks as though "our" holdout ruby-throated hummingbirds have headed South. We've not seen any for the past couple of days. The unforecast frost a few nights ago doesn't seem to have harmed the driveway mums nor the front stoop asters. That's something for which we are grateful.

wood ducks are often early migrants

Photo by J. Harrington

Soon the prevailing winds will shift to Northwest, temperatures will drop, and the waterfowl will head for waters that promise to remain open during winter. We'll watch for migrants as we travel past the local pools, but the migration is usually more obvious in springtime as the waters reopen.

Against our better judgement, we may plan on one or two winter trout fishing expeditions if that season isn't too severe. We continue to have a strong aversion to ice in the line guides on our fly rod and waddling through snow drifts while wearing waders or hip boots is beyond awkward. Then again, cabin fever isn't much fun either.

By the time winter trout season rolls around, we hope and expect that the question of who's running our railroad will be answered and we absolutely hope that the enterprise will be under capable and qualified management that will further enhance the restoration being undertaken by the many who recognize that it's the most viable path to any sort of decent future for us and our children.

No one has ever accused us of being Pollyannaish nor excessively upbeat, but we've reached a point where we either give up before the battle's over or we keep on keeping on. Please note that the evening news is no longer announcing a daily body count from the Viet Nam war. That's some kind of progress.

“The Peace of Wild Things”

Written and read by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

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