Keeping Cool

This has been a warmer than average summer here and across much of the US. Temps have been above average for weeks, especially at night. So, many creative solutions have appeared to keep cool. Here are a few of ours.

First, we can walk in the woods. Temperatures in the shaded valley along the creek are usually 10 degrees cooler than in the sun on pavement. Walking the dogs is good therapy - for aerobic benefits and to stay a little cooler.

Water helps keep cool. Gabby immediately heads for the water if it's around. She is usually the first to dunk herself in the creek. Or, she steps into the water-filled black tub (I believe it is a livestock watering trough)and lays down.


Our grandkids visited recently. The slippery slide was a hit. It is a plastic sheet with water inlets along the side to wet the slide and the participants. It cools and helps dissipate excess energy, don't you know.


We rented a pontoon for a cruise on the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. It's very relaxing and enjoyable to be out on the water. It lifts the spirits as you can see in the photo.


Or, you can simply dial back the activity level, stay in where it's cool, and take life easy. Zoey, the puppy in the background, has the ultimate relaxation response.


Sometimes staying cool is a state of mind in Bittersweet Woods. An enjoyable outdoor activity - like golf if you are playing well - causes you not notice the heat as much. And listening to good music - such as streaming internet radio really keeps you cool and relaxed. Try it.

Visitors

We have visitors often in Bittersweet Woods. I call them visitors; most of them really live here - and we are the visitors.

A box turtle greeted Suz as she drove up the driveway yesterday. We moved it into the lawn. Ten minutes later it had disappeared.

We have had several snakes "visit" us this year. The latest resides in our newspaper box at the end of the driveway. It is probably a garter snake. Our newspaper delivery person left this message with our mail - which she left near the house: "I wanted to make you aware that there is a snake in your newspaper box; that's why your paper was not in there yesterday." The box in question is part of a larger brick enclosure. Apparently the reptile lives in a compartment behind the newspaper box.

Then we have Amy and Gregg's two dogs (Holly, a boxer and Zoey, an american mastiff puppy) visiting with us for the week, along with Gabbie and Tess. The Wentzells are vacationing in Hilton Head - without us! There will be lots of action here and a few extra piles of excrement to clean up.



Today, this beach scene image popped up randomly on my desktop. It reminded me that we visited Hilton Head recently. One morning we are standing on the beach at sunrise. Low clouds block the sun from our view. Suddenly the sun appears from behind the clouds. Lunge for camera. Pelicans fortuitously swoop into the frame. Click.



We are all visitors in this earthly life, and our real citizenship is in heaven. It is easy to overlook that on many days.

Life Goes On

Tomorrow is Father's Day, my first one without an earthly father. Dad died in March of this year. Ironically, he never liked Father's Day - considered it a nuisance, a distraction. Dad never was really comfortable receiving things from others. It made him feel awkward, as though he did not deserve it. Today I will remember his dry sense of humor stoic acceptance of his frailties. I will be thankful I have a heavenly Father.

Last week Wandalee died at age 96. I had taken communion to her for several years. Turns out the same priest who married her also married my wife's parents - at the same rural catholic church. She struggled the last year. But even when feeling down, she always asked how I was and about my family. She had a wonderful family, including 22 great grandchildren. They will miss her; I will, too.

But life does go on in Bittersweet Woods. My niece gave birth to a baby girl. We are godparents; the baptism will be in a couple of weeks. Steve, our former neighbor, was married at age 69 to a Thai lady. It will be a new beginning for both of them. Herb, a hiking and trail building friend, is as active ever after a near-disabling tractor rollover accident a year ago. He has a new lease on life, as the saying goes. Today Suz proudly showed me a small flower pot with a formerly dead palm tree - that had amazingly sprouted back to life with four tender shoots.

The natural world goes on, too, with births, deaths, and struggles. We caught a glimpse of such a struggle today. As we drove by a nearby house, there was a 30 second chain reaction drama with a baby bird, a 5 year old boy, and a puppy. The baby bird fluttered in the grass, perhaps hurt. The puppy kept circling the little bird, probably wanting to play with it. The bird's parents squawked and dove at the puppy to keep it away from the bird offspring. The little boy was yelling at the bird parents to keep them off the puppy and at the puppy to keep it from the baby bird. You're probably wondering how this life and death drama (for the bird, that is) came out. We are, too. As we drove on, the scene passed from our view before there was a resolution.

May Colors

Most of the flowering trees are done blooming by mid-May in our latitude. Colors become more muted; less pronounced. This year we had weeks of above average rain. So, everything is a lush green, like a rain forest. But around the edges, there are other colors in Bittersweet Woods. Here are some of them.


Catmint


New Holly tree growth


Tri-colored beech


Blue-eyed grass


Smoke tree leaves


Kousa dogwood in bloom


Multiflora rose


Early morning on the beach at Hilton Head Island SC

Winter in May

Blackberries in bloom.

Seems like every May we have a week of cool, rainy, annoying weather. It happens just after a few 80 degree days, the winter coats are stashed for the summer, fireplace is cleaned out, and we are used to wearing shorts and flip flops. I remarked about this once to a client. He looked at me and announced matter-of-factly that this weather phenomenon is called Blackberry Winter.

It has that name because it occurs in May when the blackberry bushes are in bloom. Variations of this are referred to as dogwood winter, redbud winter, depending on when and at what latitude you live. Here is more about it: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2410/.

We had such a period this year after a few recent years without a noticeable episode. It was rainly, cool, and gloomy - day after day for about 5 days. It is impossible do mow the lawn or do outdoor activities. The trail footing was mushy; dogs feet required constant cleaning. It is frustrating to outdoor addicts like us.

But, oddly, there was a beauty to it. The woods were lush, leaves glistening in the perpetual moisture. The rush of the waterfall was audible throughout the valley. Wildflowers persisted, yet the birds were more hushed. There was a quietness and peace about it. We saw blackberry blooms. Even the invasive multiflora rose thickets flowered and threw off a pleasant scent wafting along the trail.




Now it's gone. We're ready to move on, thankful for the rhythm of the weather and life in Bittersweet Woods.