Fall...

The past few nights I have driven home from the Playhouse late at night.  It has been very bright out because of the full Harvest Moon.  It is laying low in the sky, and creating a bright path on the waters of Penn Cove.  Last night, I looked for it, and the sky was covered with clouds, however, it was not a thick layer of clouds it was what we call scattered clouds, and thin.  The full moon was lighting the sky through them.  As the clouds would scutter across, the Moon would pop out big and bright and beautiful.  At times there was a moon dog or Ring around the full moon.  This usually means that there are ice crystals in the air.  It felt like it at times too.  The temperature got down into the low 40’s.  SO low that as I lay awake there this morning, I could see my breath again.  

Last night I took a hot shower, and crawled into a nice clean bed and nightgown, rolled over on my tummy, grabbed a book and my glasses and bunched the pillows up under my chest to raise me up so I could read, and that is when I got a good whiff of Autumn!  A cold fresh wind blowing right in on my bed.  I love nights like that! As I grew sleepy, I turned out the light and snuggled under the covers with just my nose poking out.  I slept like a baby!!  It felt soooooo good!  Maybe it was the air, maybe it was the hot bath, maybe it was the fact that I have 3 whole days off, whatever it was I needed it and woke up this morning refreshed, and feeling like a million pennies.  

I watched the feeder this morning for about an hour, until Sadie woke up and had to go out.  Lola and Susie were both at the feeder.  Lola trying to cram a walnut as big as her head into her jaw and carry it off to store for the winter, and Susie  sitting in the middle of the sunflower seeds chomping away.  Soon there were three Lola’s and TWO Susies’s!!  And soon there was no more walnuts to stash away.  They have all been as busy as can be stocking up their larders.  

I was out of cat food, So I had to get dressed after all and run into town.  Grabbed a bad of Iams and came home the back way along the farm roads, and started noticing the way that Fall has arrived.  It is earlier than usual this year, and already the trees are turning and losing their leaves.  Last year they were not turning until way into October.  The geese are on their way South also.  You can hear them honking encouragement to their leader as they fly over the house.  I am right under the North-South west coast flyway, so I get a lot of honking and quacking late at night.  I Love that too.

As I was settling in and Sadie was just going to sleep in her pen, I heard a long mournful howl out back.  It was a ways off.  It was the wolves down the street.  They were singing a concert with the coyotes.  The Wolves are hybrids, and are well kept, and safe from human harm, and the coyotes are wild and run through the woods and down the roads, all night long, looking for food and friendship.  The night was full of the symphony of Nature, the critters, the wind through the leaves, chattering against the branches, the popping of the wisteria pods as it gets colder.  A loud BANG BANG POP.  It was wonderful.  

Some people think I am strange because I find beauty in the sounds of nature.  They think of them as a noisy nuisance, I think of them as music written by the greatest composers of all time.  Makes me wish I was years younger and tons smarter, so I could get a degree in Science and go off into the wilderness and study.  It is something I have always wanted to do, but just never had the opportunity to do so.  Ah well, maybe in my next life…