moving on..

I knew it was coming. The days are markedly shorter.  Sunrise is at 6:30am these days, none of
those ‘it’s 4:30 am and the sky is so
bright that I can’t sleep’ mornings now. The flowers are still blooming. In fact, some of the lilies are on there second bloom, the Turtlehead is
just beginning and Desdemona is in her prime. It’s been warm.  I’ve yet to worry
about covering the tomatoes for frost. But, the Hummers don’t care about the temperatures.  They’re guided by the length of the day. Yesterday, they said goodbye. I really hoped I was wrong. I was sitting on the porch, just out of the
wind, and one at a time, several of the hummers flew up to my head, so close I
thought they were going to land. It was
their goodbye. Then, they were
gone. I had thought all day to make a
new batch of food, add extra sugar to beef up their energy. I went in and heated the water, cleaned
their feeder of the old food and poured in the new. I saw only one hummer come during the
evening. This morning I sat in my usual
seat at the table, next to the window where the feeder hangs.  There
is emptiness to the air; no che-che-ing, no sounds of the vibration of their
wings. Then, I heard it, a sound like
packs of dogs barking. I went out to the
deck and looked skyward.  The geese were
in formation, honking and flying south. It’s coming.

Time for wool.

Don’t take your hummingbird feeders in yet. They’ll be on the move for a while, months
really. There will be stragglers; old
ones and weak ones. Everyone will need
as much food as they can get. The trip
south is very long.

…Cimicifuga

                
                turtle head…

"Dainty Bess" 
I’m going to put rubber bands on the ends of a short set of #7’s.  The circ’s twisting 29" band is making me crazy.