Everybody knows we are on the downhill side of the year. Although yesterday was warm enough for baling hay and drying laundry, the nights are cold and clammy. Mornings foggy and dew soaked. We haven't started the wood stove yet, but as soon as somebody drags the hose up there and tops up the water level....
Meanwhile, the crystalline beauty of darned near everything is breathtaking.
All day.
Every day.
From the humblest spider web, flung hopefully in the tippy top of a box elder tree, to the Eastern Phoebe, wearing his yellow winter vest, to a lone crimson Virginia creeper, to the nodding goldenrod and bright purple rays of the asters, everything is poised to amaze.
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| Starling photo bomb |
All you have to do is look.
Listen.
Take a deep breath of air that is cleaner and clearer than a perfect quartz crystal. Every day I have spent a few minutes in the chair by the garden pond...set there for summer, but I never seem to find time to use it...and soak up the good, free vitamin D, listen to the passing migrants and just exist. Just for a little while.
I think fall is a last reward before the abomination that is a northern winter when you work outdoors.
Beautiful words & pix, ma'am. You touch on the near-desperation with which Alaskans hang onto summer & fall, knowing that winter is a seven-month trip through short daylight, cold, and heavy snow.
ReplyDeleteI feel you pain..I so dread, dread, dread WINTER!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLinda
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" . . . poised to amaze . . . "
ReplyDeleteYes, Marianne . . . it seems as I age that late summer finds me experiencing n a new awareness, an alertness . . . 'amazement.' You've captured it here.
We have to hold on to this to make it through the coming winter.
REv. Paul, been reading about those snowy forecasts you folks are having and shuddering. Hopefully it will be a while before we see the white stuff, and I sure am not ready for it.
ReplyDeleteLinda, so not ready. Getting ready to cook some lovely pinto beans though. lol
Cathy, I am grateful for just what you described. The little things DO mean a lot these days.