woodsaug.html

                 Well, I have missed having time to log in my thoughts here for the past few weeks. Time has flown and summer is passing. We now have 3 hummingbirds frequenting our hummingbird feeder. There is a red throated male and his mate and now a green winged hummingbird with a light speckled throat. The first pair are greedy and keep chasing the green one away from the feeder. I bought potted lavendar Hosta which has tubular shaped flowers which they like and placed the potted flowers under the feeder. But they are spoiled now and prefer the ease of the feeder. We have 2 chipmunks who are "regulars" coming for the sunflower seeds. But the highlight of the wildlife was definitely our visitor this quiet Sunday morning.
                   It was about 10:30 in the morning. I had been up very early and decided to go back to sleep for a little while. Littledanser was in the kitchen having breakfast. Spell Weever was at the computer in the home office. Tabitha lay on the credenza which is in front of the double window in the office facing into the woods on the side of the house. Suddenly Tabitha hissed loudly, her hair all on-end! Spell Weever jumped up to see what had her all riled and there in the window, about 2 feet away, calmly munching her brunch, and staring in the window was a doe. Standing just under the window, she was about eye-to-eye with Tabitha who ran from the room in utter fright! (Man! they gotta stop feedin' those chipmunks!)
                    Spell Weever ran and got Littledanser, and then ran and woke me up to come and see our visitor. I had thrown some apples out in the yard a few days prior and had noticed they were gone, but hadn't seen a deer on the property here thus far. The dirt bikers and 4-wheelers tend to ride through the trail behind the house here and frighten the deer from here. We have seen them constantly all around the area, just not on the property before now. But it was a very quiet Sunday morning. Perhaps the noisy trail riders were away or sleeping late. It was a real treat. She hung around for a while and then leisurely worked her way through the woods till she was out of sight.
                    Tabitha did venture back into the office a while later ....... cautiously...timidly. She had to be held at the windows to reasure her the coast was clear. (Holy-hummingbirds..........what was that thing!!!!!!?)

The wildlife treat today was a doe with triplet fawns grazing in a residential yard in Mt. Pocono. Littledanser and I were driving by when we spotted them. We sat in the van and just quietly watched them for about 10 minutes.
We have been doing all the normal stuff like registering for school (which starts here next week) and doing back-to-school shopping, etc. Spell Weever has all the normal corporate political nonsense going on at the new job. I have been trying to find Doctors, Dentists, Orthodontists, Optomitrists, Dance schools, etc, and still unpacking and trying to settle in. In the midst of all the mundanities, the thoughts of "what shall I do with the rest of my life" buzz in and out like our friendly hummingbirds. Perhaps when the kids start school I will have a little more quiet time to figure things out.

Well, I have identified the type of hummingbirds we have. All it took was my finding a second to go on-line (when one of our message boards wasn't down!!) and do a search. We have several pairs of the ruby throated hummingbirds. I am guessing that the slightly larger pair are the parents and the smaller are their grown "kids". Now that the kids are grown the parents chase them away from "their" feeder. I am looking for another feeder!
Spell Weever just called to say he was getting off work early (around 3:30) so we can head over to the local fair. The likds who go to school near to the fairgrounds were given a half-day of school on Wednesday so they could go. Pretty cool. Unfortunately that wasn't the case for the schools where my kids go, just a tad furthur away. But we will have our chance today and will soak up some local flavor. Summer is waning and there is a sense in the air among the animals, birds and humans, too, that this is the last chance to play, the last chance to relish the warm days and summer flowers. The gardens and farms are bringing forth their final gifts. There is still time to have to ready for winter. There is still time to relax, and have fun.....but soon soon it will be time to close the windows, stack firewood, can vegetables, and pull out cozy warm blankets from storage. But for now, the birds are flitting and chasing each other, the chipmunk takes time to sun herself on the edge of the deck and the fawns kick up their heels as their mothers lead them into the farmer's corn feilds.......and we....we will go to the fair!

The kids went back to school today. Oh such mixed feeling have been flooding through me. At least when they were home all day I had them to be demanding of my time and attention....a good excuse to not have to focus on myself and where I should "go" as far as direction for my future. So many things to consider. It would be easy to grab a direction and run with it. I feel like I have been given a wish, like in the faerytales of people given a wish....you know the kind....the couple is given 3 wishes, and he wishes for a fish and she is so mad she wishes it were stuck to his nose and they have to use the 3rd wish to get the fish off his nose!!! I feel like this is such a rare chance in life, at 45 to be given a chance to re-design my life in a lot of possible ways. I don't want to blow it. I want to consider all the possibilities. Mostly I want to listen to my heart and listen to "spirit" and uncover the deeper, bigger reason(s) why I have been given this chance.