From the time I was a child, I’ve played a how-could-you-tell game: if you’d just been plunked down here, without context, how could you figure out what season of the year it was? Now, for instance, how could you tell it’s fall? Today, I could tell from the first glimpse of the out-of-doors, through… Continue reading How to Tell It’s Fall
Tag: Birds
It’s Official
Wednesday morning, as the dog and I strolled down Georgetown, a group of small brown birds came swirling into a nearby treetop. The sun was low in the sky and the birds were, as per normal when some critter catches my eye, backlit. Still, we stopped so I could watch them for a while. They… Continue reading It’s Official
September Pivot
The weather in Michigan has made the September pivot from summer to fall. Nighttime temperatures have slipped into the forties. Grabbing a fleece seems like a good idea on morning walks. A fleece sometimes seems like a good idea in the house as well. And harvests are coming in. The neighbors around the corner… Continue reading September Pivot
Burnished
Sue’s dog Vesta—the one that another dog attacked some months ago—has decided that Rascal con be trusted. In fact, she rather likes him again. All other dogs? Not so much. She’s making progress, but other dogs still mostly freak her out, a state of being she announces with prolonged barking. Seeing another dog approaching… Continue reading Burnished
Home
Frank and Elaine are home. Hurray! They’ve been gone for a long time. Their son and his wife, both physicians, asked them to come to look after their kids for a year, while the new doctors did a one-year stint in Baltimore. Now the son’s family are en route to New Mexico, where they plan… Continue reading Home
Time Together
When Daughter Number One and her husband arrived from Wyoming, they came bearing gifts: a couple thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles. D#1 chose the ones she did for their pleasing images—one of North American birds and one of Yellowstone—and because they looked hard. She forgot to factor in that she’d be among those putting the puzzles together. … Continue reading Time Together
Messages
“Midsummer is a field of Queen Anne’s-lace spiked with the blue of chicory,” declares Barbara Pond in her 1974 book, A Sampler of Wayside Herbs. My all-time-favorite boss made me a gift of the book, lo these many years ago, explaining that that combination of wildflowers, which graces the book’s cover, was his favorite. … Continue reading Messages
Dopamine Dressing
Summer in southeast Michigan is moving right along, judging by the fruits that are ripening near us. Michigan. The Dexter Blueberry Farm reports its berries ready for picking. White mulberries are already getting hard to spot on the tree by the Argo Cascades. They’re been edible for over a month now, and my friend Sue… Continue reading Dopamine Dressing
Summer Light
The temperature reached eighty degrees today and, judging by the purchases at the Thrift Shop, this was the day people finally snapped: they would not wear their winter clothes one more day. They pulled their summer clothes out of storage, put some on, and set off for the Thrift Shop to look for more. They… Continue reading Summer Light
Redtail and Cygnets
A glance out the kitchen window, Tuesday morning, revealed high drama underway in our back yard. There on the lawn was a hawk the approximate size of the mastodons whose bones are on display at our natural history museum. Not only was the bird large, but it seemed to have at least four wings, all… Continue reading Redtail and Cygnets