yet clinging to late summer…
Seems as if we are not the only ones still clinging to some hope of sunshine and warmth.
Whenever we are harvesting flowers from our Dyers’ Garden, we are very careful to not disturb our many friendly visitors.
We are really enjoying the blackberries that have ripened in the last few weeks. We are enjoying not so much the fact that this means summer is almost over.
However, the picking of blackberries always brings this family story about our Great-Grandmother, Hannah, to mind (told here in the words of our Great-Aunt Florence, her daughter).
“One summer my mother went alone to pick blackberries in the back field quite a distance from the house. She was busy picking when she heard a grunting and snorting noise in the thick bushes. She said, ‘You can’t scare me Dave, I know it’s you.’ She finished filling her buckets and came home. But when she got there, my father, probably reading, had never left the house! They later found signs where a bear had been staying around there, eating blackberries, of which they are very fond.”
This story was told often when we were growing up, and we never fail to think of it and share it once again, whenever it is blackberry time.
(Honestly… whenever we find a large patch of blackberries… we are always on the lookout for a bear.)
It has been about 10 days since Juliet, aka bottle baby, was weaned. For several days you could hear her complaining anytime she heard a noise that might mean the bottle toting mama and helper Harley were on their way. It has been hard to get another really good picture of her because this is the usual scene anytime you try to sneak into the field.
Samson is a great guard dog and is usually up most of the night – on guard, on patrol – barking and warding off any nocturnal intruders. So every morning there is great excitement when his breakfast is put out in the field. (He is a big dog and therefore deserves his big dog bowl… uhh.. bucket.)
For as rowdy as crows normally are, they are unusually cooperative and polite during their morning raid. One or more of the crows always stands lookout; taking advantage of Samson’s well-earned morning nap.
Relaxation – (noun) the act of relaxing or the state of being relaxed; refreshment of body or mind…
We kept meaning to get this heap of discarded bedding covered with a tarp to speed up the composting process, but somehow never got around to it. Now it has turned into this beautifully wild mound of plants at the edge of our dyer’s garden.
