Monday, September 21

I enjoyed the quiet, ordinary beauty of watching this house finch (we have lots of them) eating from our graniteware dipper in the light of the early evening sun.

I brought the colander and dipper feeder close to the kitchen window after the hummingbirds headed south a few weeks ago – and put their feeder away for the fall and winter.

As I watched, it tipped its head – which I learned allows birds to focus their vision on a specific location.

While watching the house finch this rig went by our house. Because we live off the “beaten path” and our road is only one and half miles long, I can assume that someone in our neighborhood was getting a new shed.

Before I left the window, a pretty goldfinch stopped in for supper.

Later in the day – before going to bed – I went outside to enjoy the cool evening air. It was a crisp, clear evening with a variety of neighborhood lights showing across our valley.

I could easily see the steeple on Jerusalem Church.

As I adjusted to the darkness and evening sounds, I noticed there was activity at the farm – meaning they weren’t enjoying the luxury of going to bed as early as I was.

There were lights in the dairy barn and someone was driving a manure truck down the back lane.

There was one bright star or planet fairly high in the southern sky – probably Saturn as it was supposed to be visible in late September.

The waxing crescent moon was beautiful.

I breathed in a few extra deep breaths of cool air before going inside.