A Cooler Morning Walk...

 

What a glorious morning it was for a walk up and over The Hill.  It was a cool 55 degrees when on this 844th consecutive day, we put on jackets and boots and grabbed the sticks.  How long it seems since we had temperatures  so cool!  My leaf-dyed trail jacket, which you'll probably remember from the previous year, was the perfect weight and thickness for the walk up and over.

Millie wore the same coat she always wears, but it's, never the less, a fine one that resembles my trail jacket somewhat, I think.  It has been a bit too warm for her on the oh-so-many long hot days of summer, but for today she seemed to think it was just perfect.

It's always fun to have company show up along the way.  This morning, we found our guy waiting on us near the pond.  He offered us a ride, but we declined, preferring the walk on such a beautiful day.  

 

A little cloth-covered notebook that my daughter gave me a couple of Christmases ago has become a book of favorite quotes.  I have included several quotes by Marcus Aurelius and other old Stoics, of which I will share here later.      

"It was full upon the Northern Hemisphere..."

 

"The happening was migration.  It was full upon the Northern Hemisphere.  The shorter hours of sunlight and lowering temperatures were telling millions of birds to go south.  The event had begun in mid-August.  The loons, geese ducks, and shorebirds had heard the message and had left the barrens of Alaska and Canada.  A few days later the swallows and swifts felt the change and left the Northeast.

And then it happened.  Frightful hopped from limb to limb until she reached the wispy top of the ancient hemlock.  She turned her head slowly as she took a bearing on the sun's rays.  She fixed on a longitude between ninety and seventy degrees.  After many takes, the direction was indelibly printed on her brain.  She pointed her head and body along the invisible line.  She bent her knees and ankles.  She lowered her wings"

~Jean Craighead George, Frightful's Mountain

Back to the Zinnia Patch & More...

 

Did I once say I didn't care for pink in the garden?  I hope not.

The hummingbirds were in a feeding frenzy at all the feeders and in the zinnia patch.    

The path was freshly mown (thanks to me) and the morning was a cool 62 degrees.  The wildlife was out and so were the cattle.  It just doesn't get any better than this!

"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth."  - Henry David Thoreau

I was up early yesterday morning, before the rain began (for which we are so thankful), to finish chopping out the last of the tall grasses from the garden here on the hill.  And, chop I did, for just an ordinary crisp little act of hoeing would never get the job done.  But, done it is now, and I am feeling quite proud of myself.  

I have been rereading Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth Von Arnim, which I recommend to anyone who likes to dig in the dirt.  I have quite a collection of her quotes scribbled here and there in my little notebooks.

"Well, trials are the portion of mankind and gardeners have their share, and in any case it is better to be tried by plants than persons..." ~Elizabeth Von Arnim

Elizabeth also once wrote, "If I could only dig and plant myself."  I find that amusing, but I suppose being married to an aristocrat, as she was, could be socially restrictive in some ways.  

"I wish with all my heart I were a man, for of course the first thing I should do would be to buy a spade."  ~  Elizabeth Von Arnim

The Summer Tanager did visit me one last time, perching on his favorite fence post, before flying away.  I am so missing that sweet, sweet song.  He really has spoiled me.  Safe travels to you, my dear friend!  

A couple of days ago, I saw a pair of House Finches perched on the orchard fence.  They have always been among my favorites at the feeders, but have been a no-show the past couple of years.  Even though I don't feed the birds during summer months, I rushed to put sunflower seeds in the feeder, hoping to encourage them to stay.     

"Well, she had had the most wonderful summer; she had got that anyhow tucked away up the sleeve of her memory, and could bring it out and look at it when the days were wet and she felt cold and sick."

-Elizabeth von Arnim

Dixieland Delight...

 

Today, I am missing the summer tanager.   I am well aware that the time draws near when he will be leaving, but am still hoping to hear just one more song.  I went to last year's calendar where I had kept daily notes on happenings throughout the year, and found that I had written on August 6, "The summer Tanager sang loud and long.  It was a stellar performance."  

On the 7th, I continued, "Lots of hummers around the feeders, but I saw nor heard the tanager.  Was yesterday's song the last of the summer?"  The final notation was made on the 19th.  "I saw the Summer Tanager, but he quickly disappeared into the woods.  I instantly knew that he was thinking about migration, and that there would be no more summer song." 

It may be that I missed his final show yesterday while we were out making hay.  That would have been the day, wouldn't it?  August 6th.  Oh well, it was a good year for him.  He sang his heart out almost every day and seemed to enjoy my companionship.  I know I enjoyed his.

I haven't kept calendar notes this year (not sure why) except for birthdays and my and Millie's consecutive walks over the hill.  Yesterday was walk #851.  That walk was made just as darkness settled over the land.  Had I been taking notes, I would have written, "It was a good day in the hay field, other than for being very hot - 100 degrees F.  We harvested 165 bales."

To make the time pass faster while I drove round and round the fields raking the hay, I listened to Big Country on the radio.  My favorite for the day was an old Alabama song, Dixieland Delight.  

"White-tail buck deer munchin' on clover

Red-tail hawk sittin' on a limb

Chubby old groundhog, croakin' bullfrog

Free as the feelin' in the wind

Home-grown country girl gonna give me a whirl

On a Tennessee Saturday night

Lucky as a seven, livin' in Heaven

With my Dixieland delight."

Wow!  That's good isn't it!  

The hummingbirds are giving it a whirl too, for they will soon follow on the tanager's heels.  Summer always seems to go so fast.

 

In the meantime, Millie is trying to keep cool.  And, I am needing to get some overgrown grasses out of the garden... 

August...

 

Here it is August...already!  My new computer is up and running, and I am slowly getting acquainted with it.  I have done a few trial-run posts over at my other blog, Linnie Butts & Company.  I thought I might sneak over there and no one would know!  :~)  

Actually, I am kind of liking it over there, and have been thinking I might just continue posting there.  After all she is named after my great, great grandmother, and it seems kind of a shame to let her go.  But, on the other hand, I have put a lot into Hill Top Post and would find it hard to put it away.  So...   for now, I am keeping both.  I need time to think...