Green

It is a glorious warm July day, perhaps made more spectacular by its rarity. After a winter mainly concentrated in one frigid month of February, we moved into a cool, moist spring. And moist it has stayed. June was rainy with over five inches falling. July has followed the same pattern with scarcely a day passing without rain arriving in varying degrees of magnitude. For the first time in years a little water has crept into my leaky basement but that is a small price to pay for what this weather has done for the pastures and hay crops. Now, of course, the question arises, will we be able to get the hay up in decent condition? That question will be answered in due time, Meanwhile, I soak in the beauty of the well-watered countryside. Even the most ordinary tree in the forest glows with health. Every leaf is sparking clean at a point in the year where often roadside plants begin to look dusty and shopworn. I’ve just come in from sitting in my yard looking at all the flowers and trees and listening to the soft sighing of the wind. I wish I could comment on the birdsong but right now it must be naptime as not a bird was singing. Two of them in adjacent trees were saying “Chip Chip Chip!” but it was not very entertaining when it went on indefinitely. I must look them up in the bird book. From the sound of them, they must be chipping sparrows. I could go on at greater length about what a great season it is but I want to go back outside. Suffice it to say, as some notable writer once opined, “God’s in His heaven and all’s right with the world.” P.S. My associates want credit for adding to the joys of my yard. Okay, guys. Jessie, the big, black rather goofy, dog contributed excitement by her enthusiastic, if fruitless, chases of passing bees and butterflies. Feline friends Powder and Tab made the world a better place just by hanging around, being cats.