It may be 90 degrees when you read this, but summer is on her way out the door. Out here in the country, the nights are so cool we sometimes pull the window shut. Crickets begin their chorus shortly after dark, and there’s fog in the early dawn. A blue haze hangs on distant hills in the afternoon, and sometimes the slanting sun gleams on a blanket of spider web that covers the meadow grasses. Flowers are having a last hurrah, putting forth blooms brighter than they have all summer.
The dogs have been letting us sleep a bit later, now that days are getting short. One day last week when Bruce had an early meeting, and needed to get going, they refused to rise when we did, and I couldn’t blame them.
The other morning, Ruby sat up in bed before it was quite light, put her nose next to the screen, and started growling. Despite being told to lie down, she persisted, so Bruce looked out to see three deer under the clothesline, which is right next to our room. The next day they came trotting up the driveway as we ate breakfast.
The last two times I mowed, there was a half-grown bird fluttering in the tall grass and I got off the mower to move it over so I wouldn’t hit in on the next round. It was soft and warm in my hand and I cradled it a moment before setting it down. Both times, it managed to fly a foot or two before landing, and I hoped it would get stronger before a cat came around.
Speaking of cats, we have two new litters of kittens; six in each. If anyone out there would like a mama and her family, give us a call. The moms are good mousers and love catching gophers, but they need new homes. Our cat food bills are getting too high, even with their tendency to go hunt in the meadows.
The grass was long after the blessed rains we’ve had, and I encountered a flattened spot near the barn where deer had bedded for the night. The rains had made the ground so soft that I saw their tracks under the clothesline, even in thick grass.
The lawn gets tired this time of year, and the grass wants to lie down, which makes mowing harder. When I began mowing here, a couple of decades ago, much of the area around outbuildings was mostly gopher mounds and weeds, but with regular watering and mowing, it has filled in with lush grass. Just as responsible grazing of a pasture encourages roots of plants to spread out and fill in bare spots, so the lawn. People wonder why we tend such a large area around buildings, but the green is our strongest defense against prairie fires, especially when the hills are as tinder dry as this summer has made them.
Schools are in session again, football games on the horizon, and several young adults who are dear to us are off to college. It may seem like a season of endings, but there are always new beginnings.
Meet me here next week, and meanwhile, do your best. Somebody might like it.