So here I am, sitting on my front porch, enjoying the warmer weather today. It is February, 25th, almost the end of February. Spring is about three weeks away, just around the corner.
We have seen some signs of Spring, the robins are back, the maple trees have small red flowers on them. There are buds appearing on bushes and other trees. Birds are chirping, and singing, from the tree tops, looking for a mate.
The days are getting longer, the dawns are getting earlier, the sunsets later.
Overall, enjoying the slow change from Winter to Spring. I know that we need to have Winter to promote certain natural changes and it all part of the cycle of life. But it is such a depressing dark cold time of year.
It is a time of change, for nature, and for me in my life. A few weeks ago I retired, so am working on adjusting to that change in the pace of life and routine.
Just watched It’s A Wonderful Life again a couple of hours ago. Thought provoking, makes you realise how interdependent we all are. How you treat other people can have a ripple effect.
Driving home from work, this evening, there was a line of traffic and headlights coming the other way.
It kind of reminded me of the line of Starlink satellites that we had seen for the first time a week or so ago. Online I have seen websites refer to that line of satellites as a train.
By the way, there is a free website, where you get more information about and track the many Starlink satellites. https://findstarlink.com
Anyway my mind was musing and thinking on this, as I drove. A thought occurred to me that a collection of railroad or railway cars was called a train. But then again, before railways, there were wagon trains, in the pioneer days, of early America. Also, I have heard of a line of camels, crossing the desert referred to as a camel train.
So, I suppose the word train preceded railways. Which of course growing up in the mid 20th. Century, was where I first heard and understood what a train was.
So seeing those headlights, on my way home, led my chain of thought to all of the above.
Sitting here on the porch, in the first half of September. This is the first Sunday after Labor Day, but before the Official start of Fall, on the 21st. The weather is warm, but not too warm, about 80°F, but with low humidity. The sky is pure blue, with just a few white fair weather clouds. The wind today is light and variable. There are birds flying around, and I have seen a few butterflies, flitting about, this afternoon. It is a very peaceful Sunday afternoon.
This weather has got me thinking and feeling that we are at a familiar part of the yearly cycle.
The Summer is working on coming to an end. I have seen some corn being harvested, in the fields nearby. Fall is almost here, but not yet. The leaves on the trees have not started to change color yet. The grass and the leaves everywhere are still a nice bright green. The World is full of color. The Summer flowers have not given up on their warm weather life, but the Fall flowers, such as Chrysanthemum’s, are available and coming into bloom.
We are in that no mans land between Summer and Fall. The days are warm, mostly, and the nights are getting cooler. The mornings are getting later and the evenings are getting earlier. Therefore days are getting shorter, as the Sun gets slowly lower in the Sky. With the cooler nights comes the promise of the first frost, but not quite yet.
The nightly frosts will signal nature, that it is time of change, for plants and animals that it is time to prepare for Winter. The leaves on the trees will slowly dry up and change color, then eventually let go of their tenuous grip on the branches and fall. The colder weather will tell the Summer birds it is time to fly South, for the Winter. For some animals it will be time, in a few weeks, to hibernate.
But for now let’s enjoy the last days of Summer, proper, but look forward the changes to come.
Sitting on my front porch again, watching the world go by, and enjoying the breezes and the fresh air. So peaceful, that the mind wanders, and maybe you nod off for a few moments.
All that reminded me of sitting on a lawn chair, on the balcony in front of a beach hut, back in the mid 1980’s, overlooking the promenade and beach at Branksome Dene Chine, in Poole, in the UK. I would have been there with my then, first wife and my 2 oldest children, who were both under 5, at the time.
The beach hut belonged to the Social Club of the company I worked for and was available to be rented by the members of the Social Club, the company employees.
Branksome Dene Chine is west of and continuous with the beach at Bournemouth, my hometown. Altogether from Sandbanks, to the west, in Poole to Hengistbury Head, to the east, in Bournemouth, there are 7 miles of sandy beach. Looking out to sea, you are facing south.
This is on the south coast of England, the largest part of the United Kingdom. The sea there is where the English Channel joins the Atlantic Ocean.
Anyway I digress, it is funny how things, like the breezy and warm, but not too hot weather, can take you back to a time 40 years ago, a time and place you had not thought if in years.
An early Sunday evening, almost at the end of August. The weather is cooler than it has been for more than a week. Sitting here, relaxing, watching the world go by. The crossword in the paper is done, tea is drank.
The grass has been cut, not had much chance for a couple of weeks, but with storms and rain, then hot days, it was needing a trim.
It is probably now time to get the gas grill going, to grill some chicken.
Green bell peppers aren’t a different kind of bell pepper, they’re simply the unripened form of red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, which also explains the price. Green bell peppers are cheaper because they can be harvested sooner and require less growth time and overhead.
The nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is based on a true story. The girl in the rhyme is Mary Sawyer who, as a young girl, hid her pet lamb in a basket under her desk after it followed her to school. The rhyme was later written down, as a poem, by one of her classmates.
Colins Place 