Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Don went for a walk on our property in the late afternoon yesterday. He came back and his overall impression/feeling was “They’ve left.” Not a sound from the birds, bees – nothing. (I assured him the bees were alive and well; he could find them among the asters on the front lawn.)

But I know what he means. It all seems very sudden this year. Most of the birds are gone, though the Carolina wrens are around. They often stay through the winter. I hear the sounds of Canada geese every day now. I don’t see our resident groundhog, probably because he’s preparing his winter hibernation tunnel. I haven’t seen the blackbirds lately, the robins have left town, as have most of the finches.

It’s eerily quiet.

So I took that same walk; through the woods, the back forty, and down the little path to the bench that overlooks our neighbor’s fields.

Blooming in the woods.

Looking up at the sky from my perch on the bench.

The fields.

He was right. It all seems to have happened rather suddenly. It’s still warm outside with temps in the high seventies, low eighties. It seems like they should still be here! But they know what they have to do. Their clocks have told them to move on.

I miss them.

I’m sure I’ll see birds around the birdbath in October, when they stop for a refresher on their way south. But, summer is gone, even though the calendar says we have a few days of it left.

Oh, the gnats are still hanging out here.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

There are bees everywhere right now, especially down near the edge of our property, where there are many wildflowers, including goldenrod, asters, New England asters, etc. They love these flowers. Next year, I need to do a better job of controlling the area in which they bloom, but I’d never get rid of them. They’re beautiful and a such a gift in the fall, when so many other flowers have faded. Mother Nature clearly thought this one out, “These people need a bit of color this late in the season. I know…some late blooming wildflowers!”

There are more and more leaves falling everywhere on the property. The maple and black walnut leaves are always the first to drop. It’s shocking to me how quickly everything has changed around here! Soon, we’ll be raking and cleaning those gutters.

This is the time I pretty much give up. Leaves are covering chunks of the garden beds, as well as the porch floor, the driveway and the funky patio. There’s nothing I can do about it, so I have to let go of what was and embrace what is.

Nothing happening on the dollhouse at the moment. I’m waiting for the bathroom wallpaper to arrive. And I’m not motivated to paint and measure baseboards.

Some of you are squeamish about bugs. I am not. I’m fascinated by them and I routinely rescue spiders and flies and bugs that have somehow got inside our house and need help. Don also does this. I’ve trained him.

This next photo is one of my favorite spiders ever: the yellow garden spider, or orb weaver, They’re quite big and, to me, quite beautiful. They’re also very docile.

I look for them every year at this time, and they’re nearly always in amongst the fall wildflowers. I was particularly interested in this one because I disturbed their web the other day when I was pulling the invasive weeds. Not once, but twice. I felt so badly about that. I wanted to make sure they were alive and well. They can weave a new web very quickly, and sure enough, here it is. The web always has a very distinctive zigzag stitch. You can see it directly above and below the orb weaver.

I check in on them every day.

Okay. Time for more coffee.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.