As of 7:43 this morning, local time, we are into full autumn, if not fully into autumn. The equinox has occurred but the season has not matured. Leaf color is still less than 10%. Some monarch butterflies have fluttered by. Flickers are flittering through the backyard. Strangely, several lilac bushes in the neighborhood have produced a second bloom recently. Meanwhile, the size of sandhill crane flocks has grown and Canada geese are doing training flights. We even saw a woolly bear caterpillar this week past.
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| just a hint of color in the trees
Photo by J. Harrington
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No sign yet of the first frost or the first snowflake in our neck of the woods. Either could arrive any day now. The local crew of hummingbirds seems to have headed south. We’ll leave the feeders up for another week or two in case northern migrants stop by. I think, and hope, high temperatures will now stay seasonably less than 80℉ at least until next April.
As we enter the darker seasons, many of US hope that will only be literal and not figurative. The latter depending on the results of the upcoming presidential election. In our funkier moods, we wonder how many days of relative peace and quiet we’ll get before campaigns for the mid-term elections start up.
Archery deer season opened the beginning of last week Friday brought a handful of thunderstorms, complete with boomings, lightning flashes, and downpours. Will that be the last until next year, or might we experience thundersnows? Stay tuned.
Something we couldn’t share before this because it might have spoiled a birthday surprise was one of this month’s high points. For his birthday, we got the Son-in-Law an Early Lessons print from the BobWhite Studio. The Studio is located not far from our home so we made arrangements to take a peek prior to completing the purchase. In the process, we enjoyed a nice visit with Bob and his charming wife, Lisa. The story behind the print as a gift is that it depicts a man, presumably a Dad, standing behind / beside a girl holding a fly rod. The Son-In-Law has been taking his almost four-year-old daughter fishing quite a bit this summer. She’s a bit young for a fly rod, but, as most Minnesota sports fans have learned to say, “maybe next year.”
Poem Beginning with a Line from It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Just look—nothing but sincerity
as far as the eye can see—
the way the changed leaves,flapping their yellow underbellies
in the wind, glitter. The tree
looks sequined whereverthe sun touches. Does anyone
not see it? Driving by a field
of spray-painted sheep, I thinkthe world is not all changed.
The air still ruffles wool
the way a mother’s handbusies itself lovingly in the hair
of her small boy. The sun
lifts itself up, grows heavytreading there, then lets itself
off the hook. Just look at it
leaving—the sky a tigereyebanded five kinds of gold
and bronze—and the sequin tree
shaking its spangles like a girlon the high school drill team,
nothing but sincerity. It glitters
whether we’re looking or not.
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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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