Early morning shadows.

As in not sure what I am going to blog about. I feel like I should post something. But I can’t seem to drag myself out of my malaise.

Is it because Sam is really sick and not going to get any better and I’ve been playing caregiver to him?

Is it because this is normally the time of year we head off to the cabin? We went in late May/early June this year and yet it seems like we didn’t go at all. Like we are missing out.

Or is it just because. I honestly don’t know. So I have a feeling this will be a random dumping of things going around in my head this morning.

I mowed the yards yesterday and in doing so picked up a lot of leaves that have fallen. It was a beautiful afternoon so it wasn’t really a chore riding Johnny around and around. I am hoping the grass is just about done with its growth cycle. Then it will be leaves, and oh boy, do we have a ton of leaves!

Last night it got down to 46 degrees F. BRRRRR! The pool is not going to like that. We did manage to swim on Saturday for ten lengths of the pool but little five-minute rain showers kept drifting by that weren’t helping anything. We thought we had broken a record by having the latest swim ever, but in my archives the other day a post popped up about the Ren Faire from September 10, 2007 and I talked about how we had gotten so hot while at the Faire we came home and jumped in the extremely cold pool to cool off. So, we didn’t break a record after all. Almost. The pool is scheduled for closing next week.

Good thing too. Every morning when I go out to put chlorine in there is a little frog on the solar cover. I can’t catch him, so obviously there is not enough chlorine in the water! The fallen acorns were covering the pool deck the other day and we swept them off. A few days later you can’t tell we did anything. Even sitting in the house you can hear them hit the pool cover with a resounding thwack! nearly as loud a gun shot. After not bearing any nuts at all last year our oaks are making up for it. I have a plan for the little acorn hats. If it works out I’ll show you.

We walked the dogs after dinner last night. The days are getting so short that dusk fell pretty quickly from the time we set out to the time we were walking back up our road. Good thing the dogs were leashed because there at the edge of the woods stood a deer frozen to the spot. The dogs all saw it and it saw them. We were getting closer and closer and still the deer just stood there, so finally I yelled SHOO! and it took off. Next thing we knew another deer broke cover from the opposite side of the road and crossed in front of us. The dogs were going crazy but stayed under control, thank god. I’ve had enough dog-related injuries to last a lifetime. But that’s a subject for a different blog post.

My sister and her husband arrive tomorrow afternoon for a brief overnight stay on their way to vacation in New York City. Rick has a seminar in the city, so he’ll be departing to NYC as they arrive here! Since Rick will be traveling by train and my sister is coming via the train, I should be busy shuttling to and from the train station tomorrow. Maybe I can take Rick around the same time as my sister arrives. Otherwise, Skylands is in the middle between the house and the train station so I just might amuse myself there!

So, see? Random thoughts!

How quickly time goes by these days. It seems like just yesterday the whole summer was before us. Now it’s behind us.

Our trees are changing at a rapid pace. Just over the weekend there are more and more trees turning everywhere you look. A little earlier than normal this year. And I don’t think it’s stress, it hasn’t been that dry. Everything this year has happened a little early.

I have a feeling we’d better get busy transferring our wood stash from outside under the tarp to its winter spot under the deck.

Right now the weather is what I call in its in-between stage. It’s still warm outside (and humid), so it’s not pleasant opening up the windows. Yet it’s not hot enough for the air conditioning to run and the house gets stuffy as a result. I find myself turning down the thermostat a notch just so the air will run. Annoying.

I am sort of in-between too. I feel lazy. No energy to do anything. I need a kick in the you-know-where.

The grass needs mowing, yet with the almost two inches of rain we’ve had over the past couple of days it’s too wet to mow. The ground is too soggy.

I could pull weeds or start moving the wood. But …

Well, like I said. Too lazy.

Yesterday I did sort out books from our bookshelves and filled three boxes worth to be given to the Friends of the Library. Now I just have to get them out of the house. I’m in kind of a purging mood. Out with all the junk sitting around! Be gone! Yet there aren’t many places to get rid of things around here. I’d be more motivated to go down in the basement and start getting rid of things we don’t need/want/use if it were easy to just take it somewhere or have it picked up. But the nearest Goodwill is way down in Wayne. Excuses, excuses!

This morning I rescued a frog from the pool cover. Within two minutes he had hopped right back in again, this time in the water. I scooped him out but this time instead of sitting him down on the concrete that surrounds the pool I dumped him out over into the yard. Stupid frog.

After the frog rescue I happened to look over at the front yard and caught a glimpse of a small animal running down the driveway. It looked like a fox or maybe that ugly little coyote I saw a few months back.

We’ve had lots of visitors. Like this deer family that came last week. A doe with two spotted fawns. Sorry the photo isn’t better, they were on the run and this was taken through the screen.

The turkeys come every day. Yesterday in the middle of a heavy rain I looked out to see one turkey huddled under the protection of our burning bush hedge. It just stood there waiting for the rain to let up. Silly birds.

I haven’t seen any bears recently although our neighbors had one in their garage last week. They had left the doors to the garage open and the bear found the dog food that they keep in a garbage can. Maybe I don’t see him because I always keep our garage doors closed!

Well, that’s all I have today. Now back to my super exciting life!

P.S. The craigslist person called again. He wants to pick up the solar cover and reel tonight. Want to bet he doesn’t show up?

Shades of green at Green Turtle Pond. Taken two weeks ago.

And so it begins. The slow slipping down of summer. At first it’s the little things you notice.

The sun. It’s lower in the sky and rises later and sets earlier. It seemed like just the other day we were swimming at dusk which happened around 8:45 p.m. Now it’s around 8:00 p.m. It’s strange that you don’t notice at first, then all of a sudden it hits you: the change of seasons has begun.

There are other indicators. The pool temperature drops by about two degrees and becomes on the edge of swimmable. The cooler nighttime temperatures and the slight change in the angle of the sun are to blame.

The hummingbirds are feeding voraciously at the feeder stocking up for their big flight home. They haven’t been bothering with the feeder and have left it to the bees for the past month and half. Not now.

The other birds seem to be feeding a lot too. More so than usual. I’ve had to fill the bird feeder every other day.

The turkey with her two babies has started showing up every day at the bird feeding area in the front yard. Soon the hens and the toms will all band together and instead of three I’ll have twelve or fifteen turkeys coming.

And they aren’t the only ones. This cute little fox showed up the other day.

My garden spider is still around. I check up on it every morning. I’ve never known a spider to have a web in the same spot for so long! Don’t you think it’s strange? I call this photo Dance with Death.

It’s been a real summer this year. Very warm and humid. Not a lot of rain but enough to keep everything green without watering. The nasty storms over the past few days have pretty much passed us by, growing stronger as they move eastward, leaving us with only a little rain to show for it. We could use more.

I think I’m ready to embrace a different season. Although I hate to lose the pool, I am looking forward to autumn. To opening the windows wide instead of always having the air conditioning on and sleeping cool for a change. To cozy fires in the wood stove to take the chill off a damp day. To stews and chile bubbling away on the stove.

I have no idea if the trees will have good color this year or not. I kind of think they will. Last year was so disappointing with all that moisture we had because the trees just gave up and dropped their leaves without ever really changing. Will not quite normal moisture make for a poor showing as well?

The are predicting a very snowy winter for us which I am not quite ready to think about yet. After last year’s non-winter it could come as quite a shock!

Only time will tell what Mother Nature has in store for us!

Taken the other day after we had the bear visit and the near empty bird feeder was just sitting on the deck. Brazen little rodents!