Well, that's as far as I got with that posting, - now it's Tuesday, October 2nd and an overcast sky that had a hint of rain in it has cleared to scattered clouds and intermittent sunshine, so we continue dry and thirsty, well into the autumn season.
After a soggy spring we have had no rain since the first part of July, unless you count the forty-five drops that fell on the windshield one day last week when a miniscle shower favoured the valley!
Sunday afternoon Charles and I and the camera set off on a small drive to see what was happening in the hills around Cawston, and to the wild fowl in Ginty's Pond. Alas, the grasses in the hills are sere and brown, and the leaves on the trees are crispy dry, curling up and turning a sad shade of greeny grey. There is very little colour - only the sumac and the rabbit brush have sparse red leaves and yellow blossom.
Even where the creeks flow down the crevasses and canyons in the hills, and where the colours are usually brilliant and luxurious, there is no indication of the alchemy of water that encourages the leaves and trees and shrubs to have one last glorious colourful fling at life. So bleak and sad!!!
Ginty's Pond had no water in the farther end, that borders the river, - no birds, no water fowl; dried husks of bull rushes crowd despondently along the roadway and southward towards the mid section of the dry waterway.
At the village end of the Pond a few ducks huddled on logs, while around them the water, covered with scum and slime, lay dormant. As I captured a few pictures a woman who lives along the edge of the Pond came to discuss this sad state of affairs, and to tell me about the beaver and the culverts and the neglect that has caused the water to lose its vitality and nourishment, and together we remembered when the water flowed freely where now a great fill accomodates a roadway.
I think we need to arrange a Rain Dance!!! I see that dark clouds have gathered in the east, - perhaps we will have a decent rainfall to nourish the trees and shrubs and gardens as they go into the winter.
Sometimes October can be rather wild, - great wind and rain storms, brilliant sunrises and sunsets and drama in the heavens. It is too late for colour this year, but we could do with a bit of theatre, - and we do have the memories of other years when all things combined so copacetically and everything was glorious and breath taking......
Gracious thanks giving.......
3 comments:
Hello Hildred, I'll definitely do the Rain Dance with you, though for me it will come as snow. Our trees weren't as vivid this fall either. We really need moisture heading into winter.
It is sad when this happens to an area....I am afraid that it will happen more and more often.
I enjoyed your beautiful photos and the descriptive phrases of your essay. I am reminded of the landscape of Wyoming and our forays into Idaho and Utah during the fall of the year. I had not thought of rabbit brush since moving away--how strange to be suddenly reminded!
Post a Comment