End of August

Howard called me to the door to view the hummingbird on the lanky zinnia.

Photo from his phone, taken through a streaky window.

Nasturtiums and lemon verbena a few days before the heat wave.

Attempts to capture  a good photo of the hummers through the screen aren't impressive. 

We have a larger crew of them this year, eight to ten as best we can count as they mill about.

My notes from other years indicate they should stay with us until the week of the autumn equinox. The birds don't depart all at once. I leave a feeder up until early October as we often have a transient or two after the summer residents have drifted away to their winter quarters.

Three turkeys have made a daily visit during August. Most often they stroll down the grassed-in lane, peck about in the lower meadow. 

The above photo, taken through a window screen, caught them just before the Sunday morning downpour. They scuttled into the tree line and sheltered there until the rain diminished. 

Later the turkey trio trekked to the upper field, ambled down to the edge of the garden and then marched through the wet grass below the house. I crept out very quietly and was able to zoom in on them before they noticed me and changed course.  Our resident cats often spy the turkeys before I do. With their acute hearing I suspect they pick up on the gabbling and cackling of the turkeys and hurry to a window to track their progress. 

Sunset after the blessing of rain.

Summer in south-central Kentucky is a lengthy season. April, May, even June can serve up a short run of cool days, but by May we are putting away winter clothes, removing heavy blankets and quilts from the beds, spending hours outdoors planting, pruning, trying to keep pace with burgeoning weeds. 

July is hot, often too dry, although this year we had enough rain to bring on the vegetable garden.

The green bean harvest was smaller than i hoped for and Mexican bean beetle larvae [horrid yellow squishy things] took a heavier than usual toll on the plants. Repeat plantings of beets were a failure.

Jim raised successive crops of excellent sweet corn--and the raccoons only once breeched the electric fence to feast for an evening.

My perennial plantings are a hopeless mess! I've pottered about yanking at weeds, dead-heading, pruning, all in rather desultory fashion and without significant impact on invasive weeds that thrive regardless of drought. 

August did bring dry conditions and unrelenting heat. 
The few days when temperatures remained in the mid 80's F. with lower humidity were a relief.

August for me has been a month of slogging; Shakespear's description of 'the petty pace from day to day' has been a good fit. 

The creativity which inspired me to finish several quilts during June and July deserted me in August.

One hot or 'cooked' meal per day has sufficed, with sandwiches [on homemade bread] or leftovers rounded out with garden salads of tomato, cucumber and green pepper have been plenty.

I've spent hours reading--not unusual for me in any season. 

I'll share more about that in a later post.

For now, I'm welcoming September. 

After two evenings of muttering distant thunder which brought no rain, the sky opened this morning with a twenty minute deluge which then settled into gentle rain continuing into the afternoon.

Now, at a few minutes til midnight, the temperature stands at 72 F. with humidity of 89%. 

Stepping outside for a moment I note that the air is heavy and moist, but with a freshness that has been lacking during the several dry weeks. The sky is inky dark with no prickling of stars.

Morning light is noticeably later to appear and here on the dividing line between central and eastern time dusk is gently folding in by 8 p.m.

As always I marvel at the subtle changes of the seasons, the steady and inexorable 'march of days.'