OCTOBER 20, 2010 Wispy One Minute, Windy Another Moment

October 20, 2010  WINDS OF FALL........

Wispy Winds of Fall gently playing with the leaves held tight on their stems, Windy and Rainy  Another  Moment, whipping the leaves to the ground.


Fickle Fall never knowing if a jacket is needed or an umbrella.

   Today Within Nature presents us with 30-40 mile an hour winds.  Rain tearing at our skin, jackets, umbrellas useless as they bellow out backwards instead of sheltering us from it all.  Sad in a way because the kaleidoscope of color in recent days has disappeared.  The tree limbs are exposed, the sky is gray, rain keeps me in the house.  Horses are stuck in barn, because they are old and needing pampering away from the windy cold rain that is soaking one's clothing, and soul in minutes.

But what prevents me from enjoying one thing will give me joy another way .  Time to sew, time to read a novel, set aside in spite of its exciting turn of fate.  No time on sunny warm days to read until the last pages, giving me that happy ending......
   Time to write a blog.....now that I am held captive by the Wind and Rain

   Lets go back to the Wispy days of Fall that I enjoyed just a few days ago.  A walk in the woods listening to the crackling of leaves beneath my feet.  Coming across Mushrooms on our old Indian Marker Red Oak that is now dismembered of its pointing arm. (Check out my other blogs on the story of our old Oak.)

Grape Ivy covering an old arbor Dick made years ago.  Nice to sit in its shade on a hot sunny summer day.  But in fall it gives you permission to sit a bit, look around, notice its beauty in other ways.  Looking up you see a neat design which you never bother looking at covered in green summer growth. The golden yellow leaves seem to soak in the sun rays

Katsura tree reflects that same sun tone hue. Almost looking like Christmas lights Ahhh the beauty of fall!

Fall teaches you patience.  Its a waiting season in between glorious days of winter and summer.  Taking a deep breath from life, learning to wait until the next season starts.  Patience does that.  Like waiting for a plane at the airport that is late or canceled.  Can't do a thing about it, no steaming mad, no nervous agitation changes it, so patience comes to the rescue.  Take a deep breath and put your mind onto other things, like those glorious days of white snow blanketing all this drab gray that is now staring me in the face with fall.  Then when it is nearing spring taking another deep breath and thinking of all those buds opening into another glorious summer of flowers and scents of heaven....
taking away all the endless long cold days of winter.  Our mind plays tricks with us, so might as well trick the mind.....push the pause button, think of something else.  Practice makes perfect and a little help from our great Creator above, asking Him for the gift of patience.  Like yesterday when babysitting for our dear little Cooper our baby grandson.  I arrived, family left, Cooper went into panic with a howl that would scare a pack of wolves.....  :)  But with a quick prayer for patience I thought of bringing him to the window and say whats that?  Of course it switched his mind from family marching out the door without him, and he gazed out at the things I pointed out to him.  He smiled, we sat on the floor and played with his comforting toys and then his nap brought that beautiful personality out and he glowed the rest of the day.  Patience, taking a deep breath, tricking the mind to something else, using God's blessings to form our day......

In Fall my eyes reach upwards to the sunshine, brushing against the clouds.  I drink in the beauty of the racing art work of Nature to console my need for beauty instead of looking at the drab dress of late Fall.

The sun was just rising in the morning. Notice my  heart tree in center has lost half its leaves.  Two different oaks, one hangs on to its leaves longer than the other

One of the nicest things about fall is that I do not mind being in the house at all.  I love to sew, quilt, and write.  Below is my chicken I have been working on.  The pattern is from Florine Johnson Designs.  I bought three.  This one is called That Radical Rooster Rupert



  It kind of reminds me of my roosters that I have had.

Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster and hen

The roosters are all different.  The above rooster is meek and mild.  He lives in the barn where we store our hay.  He won't fight so gets too beat up by other roosters.  The same with the Red Rhode Island Red in the top photo but the blond Orpington  rooster would always run the place including me if he could.....  He is no longer a residence in my flock.  I want peace around here.

Talking about chickens......they are all molting right now.(loosing their feathers)    Feathers are  all over the place.  Picture below is one I call Dotty, I think she is a Brahma and she looks a mess in this picture a couple weeks ago.  She really dropped her feathers and her pink skin was showing.  But in a couple weeks she looks like new with her new winter coat.

Dotty in front of picture, with her new coat of feathers after molting and Custard the new chick from last springs hatching.

 With November just around the corner our Nature is beginning to rest.  The field in back which we rent to a local farmer has been harvested of its soybeans, the leaves have fallen to the ground to be decomposed to new soil for next Springs planting.  The skies are also getting to look more like winter skies.  The sun is rising in this picture that I took this morning, its more south, putting a different coolness to our earth. Wisconsin is getting ready to accept the blanket of white, with frost killing most of its growth, it lays waiting for Winter..

 Bird feeders are out again.  We have to put them away in the summer because the Raccoons destroy them trying to get the seeds.The hardy birds of Wisconsin winters, cluster about the feeder both on top of the large feeder and on the bottom ground below.  Little Finches now colored a dusty  brown instead of their bright yellow and black of summer flit about the many thistle feeders available.

The hunters dressed in their bright orange will be the only color we see out in the back 21 acres of  the picture above.  The deer will be moving a lot, as the bucks  search out the does.

 Our grandson got his first buck in the picture above  dressed in his camouflage hunting clothes for bow and arrow hunting out back in our wild nature. They set up deer stands and sit and wait.  he spent many a day out their patiently waiting.  I wonder what he thought about up high in that deer stand.   His patience won out because he finely  got his buck, a 6 pointer.

The hill behind our home in fall 

Keep patience tucked under your arm, close to your heart, enjoy the nature around you and there is always tomorrows joys waiting in the outskirts of our busy lives.

God Bless

Kate