As September Starts!

As 90 degree days usher in September 1st and folks sequester themselves in home-work-car air conditioning, I enjoy a steady breeze flowing through the wide open house ... the sun disappears earlier and earlier every evening, but I start my vacation by enjoying sitting at the picnic table under the 2 huge Beech trees, with a wondrous breeze, peeling my 3rd year of small but "juicy" peach crop, both for the freezer and crisp/cobbler ... the girls sit right close for those "bruise" spots ;o)

• The trees are turning their wonderful Fall colors and the berries are gone, but Willow can still be spotted hunting under the bushes for a last berry or two ... there were 22 apples on our dwarf tree and I can pick a "fresh" eat any time I want (15 left)!
• the school buses pass at the crack of dawn and at day's end!
• sitting on the pond side dock where the kayak and rowboat are tied, I can look down and see various size tadpoles and tiny sunfish enjoying the sun-warmed water ... and I wonder if they'll make it through the upcoming Winter ... can they go deep enough in the pond to survive ... I want to hear those Bullfrog croaks join the Peepers serenade and watch those moving black clouds of "bazillion" Hornpout babies next Spring ;o)
• the "veggie" garden struggled but with pond water pumped up with the submerged "sump pump", it produced just enough tomatoes, cukes, green beans and summer squash for us ... the "potted" lettuce is approaching an interesting flowering stage ... can't wait to see the flowers!
• Willow is shedding her 2nd crop of "puppy" coat and I'm sad to see all that soft hair go ... it's being replaced with slightly darker and coarser feeling hair :-(
• Sutter sheds some but nothing like our 7 month old girl  :-)
• all day long, the Woodpeckers and Nuthatches feed at the suet-feeders outside the kitchen window ... I place just a small piece of suet in each feeder during the heat of Summer and it's adorable watching each mother bird teach her baby to feed ... the babies are quite vocal  :o)
• since the berries have gone, I haven't seen the "now grown" Wood Duck youngsters feeding the pond edges for dropped berries morning and evening ... started with 9 ducklings and at last sighting there were varying numbers as they ventured out on their own ... I'm sure the Snapping Turtle and the Hawk cut their numbers!!!
• last night as Willow and I came in from our nightly kayak paddle around the pond, there were close to a dozen huge beautiful green & turquoise Dragon flies flying around the yard  :o)
• I'm hunting for an audiotape of Owl calls, to identify the night sounds that I hear through the open windows ... fascinating to hear one calling to another and getting closer to each other ;o)

The girls and I have enjoyed time away from home this Summer visiting friends/family in Kennebunk Maine, Washington NH and Wolfboro NH ... all visits seem to have the same enjoyable WATER theme ...

See Willow learning to "Dock Dive" .... OOOOOhhhhh!

LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE FALL ADVENTURES :o)