The Simple Life

 It was a pleasure to get back to home things after so many days away. Coming in to sleep, do laundry, shower, dress and run out again is not the way to enjoy home, although I know for many people that is everyday life. Not for me. I can do it when needed, but I much prefer long slow mornings, puttering in the gardens, coffee and tea on the porch, watching the pets and birds and messing about with whatever project we have on at the time.

Yesterday was very, very hot and so humid it seemed like the very air dripped. The temperature never reached 90 but it felt like we were in a tropical rain forest. Afternoon rain fell straight down, as if the clouds were just so full they could hold no more liquid. Then in the evening the fog began rolling in well before dark. I worried about people who had to be on the road as visibility must have been very bad.

I've noticed lately that there is once again a plenitude of deer. For a few years the deer population seemed to be waning but this year there is a bumper crop of fawns. They are so pretty with their red coats all white-spotted. The bucks are growing their antlers, still covered with velvet of course. I saw a herd of at least ten or twelve on our hill the other night when I stopped to take photos of the sunset.

Which reminds me--the sunset lied. It was a lovely rosy red one, which is supposed to mean no rain the next day, but rain it did. Maybe there was a red sunrise and I missed it.

The roadsides are full of bloom right now and I hope I can get out with my camera to capture some of it. Yellow and brown black-eyed Susans, blue chicory, red-orange butterfly weed, white daisies and Queen Anne's Lace, wild pink spirea, orange daylilies, lavender vetch and brilliant yellow sweet clover, along with many others, make a display we will not believe could be possible when we see photos of it next winter. There is quite a lot of milkweed in bloom on Joe's Run too, and I hope it attracts the Monarch butterflies.

It's been a good year for hay and the farmers have been making the best of it. I remember June days in the hayfield, driving across our steep meadow as my sons piled the bales on the truck, and the sweet smell of the new-cut grass. I can't say I miss it, but I appreciate the hard work of those out there covered in dust and seed, getting the hay put away for their livestock's winter feed. Our livestock is limited to chickens and honeybees these days, a far simpler job to care for.

News from friends and family is full of both joy and sadness. My second cousin and his wife had their first child, my niece got married, many are on vacation. Others have lost loved family members and pets, some have had to deal with serious, sudden health issues.

Life is never simple, really, is it? Many covet country life for its simplicity but the truth is it is as complicated and full of tragedy, comedy and romance as any other place.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.