Fall Prince

Stripes that zig and zag
Tiny black feet that pad and pad
Your true beauty waits.

Summer Sunset

Click on this for a high resolution sreen saver if you desire.

Morning Rush Hour

It is a cool early morning as summer wanes and the chairs on the deck are still wet with dew. I spread a towel and sit back to welcome the start of the day. High above flocks of swallows are heading somewhere nearby, perhaps to chase insects above the cornfield. A blue jay sits on a nearby oak branch working on his breakfast ground worm shaking away the dirt by banging it against the branch at his feet. In the distance across the river two osprey, resembling gray kites, swoop up the river and then down looking for their breakfast. On my right where the sun hits the trees first, a female cardinal finds a clear place in the warm rays and does not move for a long time. Nearer to the tops of the tulip trees directly above, a pair of hummingbirds complete their love-ballet against the blue sky zooming one way and then back and then like bee bombers dive and hide in the gold green leaves to complete their tryst. The forest rush hour has started.

Timeless Beauty

This love visits every day and drinks from my lantana on the deck. It's summer beauty is so short and special.

This is a gift from and at the edge of the river. I have two of these plants that have volunteered their summer beauty each year. Each blossom lasts only one short day. It closes in the late afternoon and bows its head as if forming a cocoon.

Meeting Royalty

He is now joined by his friend.

Late in the day close to 5:00 I stop my activities or reading and go to the front door as if on autopilot. If someone were watching me, they would think I had been called by someone outside although they would hear nothing.

I open the door quietly, and just as I expected, there he stands at the end of the drive-way in all his male glory. The four points of his antlers are now tall and majestic. His coat is the golden brown of early fall, and sometimes if he is not in the late afternoon sun, he ghosts like a summer shadow against the trees.

Each time I have seen him he wanders closer to the house. I go down the flagstone steps and begin talking to him about my plants and how I don't want him to get too friendly, too comfortable in my front yard. He looks at me gently and wisely with his brown eyes. He does not move and stands tall and comfortable in his maleness. I keep walking steadily toward him and continue my careful explanation of my love of my garden and how hard an I am working to get it established.

He stands statue still and does not move until I am within a few yards. As if he has heard enough of this one-sided conversation, he quickly turns and with a flash of his white tail gallops back into the pine trees and crosses down into the ravine.

I know he is not afraid of me, because like the setting sun, he is back in my driveway at the end of each day grazing the grass at the side of the road. Once this week I saw him with his two does and a growing fawn.

It is like a courtship, this dance with the prince of the forest. I cannot help but be seduced by his beauty and confidence and yet I know that if I give in I will regret it.

Did You Notice?

DID YOU NOTICE:

The air smells fresher and flatter?
The air tastes interesting?
The breeze now makes a whushing sound that is crisper than the sound it made this summer?
The angles of the sun are cleaner?
The shadows made by the sun are deep tan brown instead of bright yellow brown?
The afternoon sun angles are so richly golden and do not stay as long as they should?
Thunderhead clouds are round and full and complete and no longer linger on the horizon but drift overhead?
The lines that separate the beautiful elements of summer are clean?

Yes, it is on it way...

Elegance

This lovely mushroom awaited me on my walk this morning. It reminds me of an elegant Victorian nun's habit. It was waiting peacefully beside the path.

The Partial Solution

A brief visit to K-Mart or Wall-mart or one of those huge stores where I purchased this rubber snake in the toy section of the store. It works as a Cardinalis deterreo...at least for this window. The cardinal does still hit the other windows...but at least I don't sleep on that side of the house!

August in the Garden

Above is the first bloom of my Echinacea 'Pink Double Delight'. This hybrid was developed in the Netherlands and lives up to its photos. I will get two more...this fall or early next spring to fill in the area.



It is amazing what ten minutes more of sun will do. These potted ageratums were grown from seed and thus are blooming just now. They are stair steps because the sun reaches the blooming one first as it peaks over the tree tops.