Down the Road With Me

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”  –Henry David Thoreau

These past days have been the epitome of Summer—very warm, slightly humid, and sunny.  But we are past full-on Summer; when we roll the calendar over to August, we see changes.  The Ash trees have a tinge of yellow in places, Sumac and Poison Ivy leaves are turning red, Goldenrod is blooming gold, Crabgrass grows and goes to seed, and the noisy chatter of the House Wren no longer interrupts the sounds of the day.  The mornings have been still—in movement and in sound.  Into that stillness I walk with my pal Tamba—she limps now, groans when she lays down, has lumps and bumps, so I know that our twice-daily walks are numbered.  Yet every morning she pulls herself up and eagerly heads down the road with me.  I hear the low, melodic call of Mourning Doves, and instantly my mind transports me back to my Grandma and Grandpa’s farm.  What amazing brains we have that we can time-travel when we hear or smell something!  The stillness and humidity allow dew to form on everything during the cool night, and the morning sun freely transforms all into a treasure of shining gems.

The intense sunlight soon dries the dew, but the late summer flowers—Gray-headed Coneflower, Liatris, Sunflower, Purple Coneflower, and Allium—shine on in all their glory.

On the other end of the day, when dusk was settling around us, it was still quiet and calm.  Tamba lay in the grass.  We sat on the patio as the smokey sky turned the sun red.  The setting sun streaked through the trees and shone on the rose-colored Joe Pye Weed and etched burning embers onto the live Oak trees.

Soon we heard noises in the woods—a Blue Jay was tapping on a branch with an occasional squawk.  Then bigger noises—was it squirrels?  It seemed too loud for squirrels.  Then I saw a big tail in an Oak tree—a big, feathered tail.  It was a turkey!  Two mama Wild Turkeys and their chicks were flying from tree to tree.  Wild Turkeys love acorns, and we wondered if they were eating the acorns from the trees since few have fallen to the ground yet.  Like chickens, Wild Turkeys have a crop for storage of food and a gizzard where grinding of nuts and seeds occurs.  When the mama flew to another tree, she and the chicks would cluck and chirp to one another and soon the little ones followed.  At dusk, Turkeys fly up into trees to roost for the night for protection from predators like coyotes, foxes, skunks, and raccoons.  Soon the turkeys in our trees settled down for the night.  At dawn, they will fly down to the ground again to begin another day.

The sounds and sights of August, despite the heat and humidity, allude to the waning Summer and the upcoming Autumn.  Summer in the North is indeed short and sweet.  But Nature prepares us always for the transition.  We are gathered up in the progression of time, seasons, and lives whether we are aware of it or not.  Just as an early morning walk can tune us in to the blessings of a day, silent stillness can hone us in on those things in our lives that matter, that are important, that are the shining gems in our treasure box.  One of those gems for me is a big, Black Lab dog who has walked with me for ten years now.  Her transition time, our transition time, is nigh.  Dusk is settling around us.  And each day I am so very grateful to walk down the road with her, as we are, where we are, in all our glory.