August 10, 2016 Rain, Wood & The Seasons

One of our beautiful
sunsets.

Monday 8/8. It has been cold in the mornings lately but I still don't smell autumn in the air.  Clouds quickly moved in today and the sky was overcast by 9:30 am.  It wasn't an ideal day in which to hang out the laundry, but I did it anyway.  I ended up having to take it down and hang it inside when a light rain began to fall around noon.  It became quite heavy and lasted til almost 4:00 pm.

JB weed-wacked north of the house and I split some wood, both of which we finished before the rain started.  Our high was 62, but that soon dropped to 48 with the rain.  I finally put a fire in the wood stove at 3:00 pm to take the chill out.

I finished the book I was reading, Vince Flynn's The Survivor, a Mitch Rapp novel written by Kyle Mills.  JB finished his Tom Clancy novel, Duty and Honor by Tom Blackwood.  I like that when such great authors pass on, someone is found to carry on their popular novels.

I didn't get much exercise today, so after dinner, instead of using the tractor, I carried the wood I had split to the wood shed in ten armloads and stacked it.

We watched Blood Diamond this evening.  An excellent movie but very heavy.  Don't watch it more than once every year or two.

Tuesday 8/9. It was 50 and mostly clear this morning.  Buster came to visit at 1:00 am!  His barking was met with a very indignant, "Buster, go home!"

I vacuumed, split wood and stacked it after JB moved it to the shed.  He also weed-wacked south of the house, and I gathered some of the cut grass and weeds and took them to the swales.

Clouds drifted over on their way east and our high for the day was 69.  Very nice!

Being so very integrated with Nature Up Here, I feel in rhythm with the seasons.  Usually Winter is a time for rest, except for this past one when we got so much exercise.  But then last summer was so hot that it was the season of rest.  Come Spring I am raring to go, with a long list of things to do (some of which never get done).  By the time Summer arrives, I'm still going strong but enjoy sitting on the porch to rest or when it is too warm to work.  Come August, I am definitely slowing down, but the with the majority of the work done.  When Fall arrives, I am more than ready for the cool days and am re-charged by then to finish some of our projects.  

Living Down There, the seasons didn't seem to impact my life as much, other than a change in wardrobe and some outside activities.  I marked the passing of the year more by holidays than seasons.  Of course there are only two seasons west of the Cascades - wet and wetter.  And in California (where we lived for nine years) they are warm and warmer.

But Up Here on the mountain in an area with four definite seasons, there is a rhythm to life.  A joyful rhythm.  One in which I was born and to which I have returned.

Wednesday 8/10. It is 50 this morning with some thin wispy clouds and a breeze.  JB left for Down There at 7:00 for his doctor's appointment to go over his test results.

Thought for the day: Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.  Stanley Horowitz