Snowy Speculations

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If I could paint, I would have tried to replicate the landscape very early this morning. Illuminated by the faintest hints of light and hours before sunrise, the cold, stark landscape lay completely still in its snowy blanket. Naked trees stood proudly and quietly against this backdrop, this palate of pure white an unforgiving place for any creature, big or small, to attempt to cross without drawing attention to its existence at this time. Even our ancient tire swing looked sleepy and droopy, suspended precariously close to the ground, as if the effort of hanging from a tree limb was too much for it. To the east, the only rays of light visible were the ones coming from the across the river, and even those seem hushed and muffled, like a child tired and murmuring not to wake them up just yet.  The young families down the road have gone all out with Christmas lights this year. Bright colours adorn the night skies and my neighbours even have a Christmas Cat and a Christmas Dinosaur that i
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The Rooster Crows at Dawn (or not)

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I woke up just before five this morning. I couldn't sleep so I got up and opened a window just a little to look out at the darkened landscape. A sliver of moon illuminated the world just slightly. Down the road, several roosters were crowing in succession, trying to outdo each other. The air was cool and damp but the smell of a skunk nearby permeated the morning air.

Summer has been undergoing a gradual change these last few weeks. Not just in the temperature in the morning and evening, but all around. Even the poplar and ash trees at the back seem to have been brushed with the hand of an invisible artist, bathed with a yellow glow as the leaves are starting to show the changing of the season. 

If you've read my blog before, you'll remember that I love growing pumpkins and gourds. I always feel like this is a frivolous activity because you can't really eat these delightful wonders the garden provides us. But they do make a beautiful display at Thanksgiving! Because of all the rain, the gourds are huge this year! Instead of remaining the size of my fist as they usually do, they seem swollen from all the rain and lie among the vines that have stretched themselves out like grotesque forces of nature with their warts, odd shapes and colours.

I had saved some seeds from a pumpkin that I bought last fall and planted just one row of them. I have four that have appeared in the oddest places in the garden. It's like the vines just started running rampantly up the corn and down the cucumbers, covering everything with their tentacles and then decided to lay an egg in the strangest places. I had one pumpkin hanging precariously from the tip of a corn stalk, but as it was growing, the weight pulled the pumpkin down and deposited it at the base of the stalk, like a hen protecting its young.

It's not even the second week in August and already these pumpkins are turning orange. They haven't gotten very big this year, which surprises me considering how the gourds seemed to have exploded like something on steroids. 

The only good thing about the pumpkin and gourd vines taking over the entire garden, is that the blackbirds haven't been able to access the corn and rob me of my harvest like they do every year. The bad thing is that the vines have curled and twisted and covered the stalks so much so that I can't even find the corn that is hidden there. C'est la vie!

The roosters are still crowing in the dark down the road, but my neighbour's chickens are still fast asleep. The smell of  skunk in the air worries me as they lost a chicken to a skunk last week. I couldn't believe it! How could a skunk eat a chicken? But sure enough, besides polluting the air with the wonderful scent that nature has bestowed them, skunks can also cause a lot of damage in a coop. 

I'm going to make the most of these last few weeks of summer and cram in every minute either in the sun or in the garden, my happy place. I'll be making tomato sauce and pesto in the next few weeks, baking "everything zucchini" with those green monstrosities left at my door. But I don't mind! Summer is my favourite season and I get to spend it in my favourite place in the world: home! But I will be keeping an eye out for anything resembling Pepe Le Pew...

Lolita Schimann Hale

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Snowy Speculations

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