Each day local row crops (corn and soy beans) turn more golden and less green. The cluster of asters up the road, the ones I’ve been concerned the township mower might have murdered, survived. They’re in bloom along the east side of the road about a mile north of our house. That makes me ridiculously happy. Since there’s more than a dozen species of aster growing in the county, and my botany skills are close to non-existent, we’ll not try to identify which asters are growing along our road.
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| our roadside asters
Photo by J. Harrington
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More and more telephone wires are being lined by birds. Large flocks of crows are gleaning harvested small grain fields. Sandhill cranes are hunting through soybean fields. The ruby-throated hummingbirds have become irregular visitors to the sugar water feeders. All signs that pre-migration flocking is underway for some while the resident populations are being opportunistic. The first real cold front of the season is expected next week, beginning, appropriately enough, on the Equinox.
I’ve managed to prove to myself that temperatures in the mid-80’s are too warm for me to get much outside yard work done but with rain forecast for tomorrow and Saturday, some things shouldn’t be put off. If I manage to torch the brush pile on or around the equinox, the weeds I’ve just spread over the top of the pile should be pretty dried out by then and will burn nicely rather than just smolder.
Autumn Fires
Robert Louis Stevenson
In the other gardens
And all up in the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over,
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!
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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.
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