Tag Archives: Summer

Autumn is truly here

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I got an audio book from Audible today, for the Autumn season … it’s not a “Halloween” thing, we “don’t do halloween”. It’s a spooky audio book though.

The cool weather has finally arrived. It was unseasonably warm (really hot) just the other week, and the last four or five days has been heavenly. Tonight we have frost advisories out and just to the north in the more mountainous areas there are freeze warnings.

I find that I have come alive now that Autumn is here in truth and spirit. Summer is nice (when in A/C), but it puts me in doldrum mode moreso than not overall, dulled senses. Autumn means I can wear boots and heavier skirts and I LIKE that, for some reason, though I am a very sensitive person to too many layers, itchy seams, bulky seams, ick ugh gooky yuk.

In this vein I like cashmere, thin soft sweaters made of cashmere are so ultra lightweight and oh so very warm.

Silk mixed with cotton or cashmere or wool makes for a nice garment. In the south the cotton mix is alright for some things, but you Northern-Clime folks, don’t do cotton. Due wool and silk.

Pure silk is pure heaven. Silk dresses, skirts, hosiery, underthings, blouses. Ah, so sweet and warming, light and soft and silky. I have a few silk things, not quite what I deem as what I really need though. The few things are better than none though.

Wool can be itchy, so silk underneath and wool overtop are nice mates.

So in summer-time lighter clothing can be worn, barefoot-ness in the house and yard is nice, but I don’t like the overall heat of the days, and the whole thing gets old after awhile. The cold of Autumn and Winter can be drudgery when it comes to putting on the clothes needed to outdoors, and to keep warm in a colder house if you have one (as we do). But it’s aliveness, it’s senses undulled, not dulled at all, so very brimming with life and energy. It’s the intellect sparking. That’s what it is. That’s why I like the colder weather so much, I guess. It IS because I like the cool, I respond well to it, but it’s the underlying how real do I feel, the real me, my mind … Ah yes, the cold is my friend, it aides the real me in appearing.

As long as the conditions are right.

What can dull me during winter … buildings with artificial heat. Like at church. In some stores. In some peoples cars. In some peoples houses.

What happens to me is: my sinuses close up, gooky or dry and I can’t barely breath, all the while that is happening I yawn and start getting sleepier and sleepier and sleepier … it’s my mind, it sinks far away into the depths of the folds of oblivion. lolling tongue feeling.

Give me the freezing air, let me wear the light warm clothing to keep my body warm enough and give me that cool to cold air to breathe… it is full of life, and the heated air feels nearly depleted of oxygen.

Falsely cooled (A/C) buildings seem devoid of air unless the system is moving air all of the time.

What it feels to me like is slow suffocation.

I have no such problem with my house in the winter. In the old days we had a heat pump and it couldn’t keep our house warm … good job it did. It’s a gentler heat and less stuffy even if it does warm up the house, but it’s still better all around for the air to be natural as possible … we don’t use that now, it broke. The fireplace we use, it makes a nice heat that is natural and doesn’t fill up even one room, but takes the edge of cold off nicely. The air is full of breathability. :) With the heatpump we used the fireplace before, so the heatpump not being used is only the corners of the house that are left without help … and an electric space heater here and there help out when it worse out (like the days of low 30′s or 20′s and no sun for days and day [2 or more]). I like it when it snows or ices over. Everything stops and it gets warmer in the house. I mean, there’s no going anywhere, no one out there moving about, and the house gets warmer from the insulation of the whole region from snow or ice.

We live in Georgia, so it’s not a whole season of snow and ice, but fits and starts of it, then it goes away and mild cold days reign again, till another ice storm comes. We get cold weather in October sometimes, but mostly it awaits November, and we sometimes get some flurries or snow before the end of the year. It’s usually January though, mid or later, when the weather gets seriously icy or snowy. Last year it wasn’t until February. Overall last year was a very mild winter for us.

I’m just thrilled that the weather has changed finally. The trees that still have leaves (some dropped them or part of them in September, curiously) are beginning to really start to show colours changing. Peak colour is usually mid-November. Right on schedule now.

My hens are mostly all molting again. They were laying great just a few weeks ago, then suddenly dropped to only one hen laying, then she quit after a week or so of solo laying. Then about a week ago Hawklady started to lay every other day and a few days in a row as well, with nothing today, but yesterday and the day before, yes. (she’s still in her own little overturned basket area.)

The Leghorns have a flood of white fluff in their pen. The other hens have a sea of mostly black and a little bit of brown fluff all about them (Autralorps and Golden-laced Wyandottes)

I still want to get a pen made for just the Wyandottes and Hawklady, that’d be three of them. It seems nice to segregate them, they tend towards self looking behaviour. Really they do, in my backyard at least.

So it’s colder time and the Leghorns are now sleeping in their laying box, you can tell from all the feather and poop in their every morning. No more eggs being layed, so go for it ladies. Seven of them crammed in that there box.

So then, this weather, it’s bright and fluffy stuff, envigoration-ating. So what nice when it gets cooler, and darker sooner, but some good old-fashion spooky reading … and nothing like hearing it read to you.

This is the audio book I got today: Great Classic Hauntings: Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Robert Louis Stevenson and a couple more.

They are having a sale there on Audible.com, 50% off of many books, not all, just many. Each on-sale item has an orange pumpkin next to it. The book I got was a lower priced book and exactly what I had in mind to get, a selection of something, including Poe, but not limited to him, though I’m interested in getting more Poe-only audio books in the future.

So the days are less light, well, very light and bright indeed, but less of it time-wise. This next weekend is when the clocks change for us from EDT to EST. Then it’ll be darker earlier in the evening. It has seemed like the last month the light has gone noticeably earlier, so that the time change will make it shockingly earlier. It’s mostly the lack of light we have in the house due to removing our deck French doors this year. It darkened things up intensely. We had a window A/C unit in over the sink and just took that out today, so now we have a smidgen more light in here again. (House back faces South) It’ll be interesting to see how it feels, light-wise, in here after a few more days of a window view there again, before the Fall Backwards-ness of time on Sunday early AM.

Stryper Reborn

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Stryper came out with a new releast mid-August this year, just over a month ago, well a month and a half ago. I wasn’t aware of it until late last week, when I ran into the CD while flipping through CD’s in the S section at Fry’s, actually seeking another band.

I guess it was late last Winter that I was on Stryper’s website wishing for news of a tour nearby, or some material being recorded. There was something, I’m not sure what, a hint or something, maybe. I don’t recall, only that I stopped going there and thought about it at one point to remind myself to check back sooner than later. Well, I didn’t. I forgot. I have even played the albums I have of theirs on my computer many times over this Summer, no thoughts of them beyond that, for some reason.

So needless to say I was SHOCKED when I found the CD ‘Reborn’. It’s a really neat cover. The music is incredible. If you ever loved Stryper before you must love this CD, I think. I know. I feel it myself. I loved them in the 80′s and never stopped loving their music. They are the only “Christian” band I’ve been able to tolerate, and it isn’t toleration at all for me, I really like them, and their simple lyrics that don’t mince words. The music is complex and wonderful.

Styper\'s Reborn CD cover

Their newest then is new. It’s better than ever, truly. One that is really nice is an updated In God We Trust, titled I.G.W.T. this time around. The overall tone of the album is true about this one too: it’s hard, a bit melancholy, moreso glowingly minor and melodic and heavy hard undertone and overtones all at once. Another familiar song, Amazing Grace … done over Stryper “Reborn” style … really good to hear that updated too. The rest is all new material, delicious as chocolate in any way you like it the most.

Frank is away for a couple of days and may be gone longer than scheduled, so after a flurry of “Stryper Talk” I gave him on the phone today, he said I could get a few things I saw and so I was able to order their new album on Vinyl (!) I’ve been buying older vinyl of groups I like, on eBay lately, and this is even better, a brand new just released Stryper albumn, on VINYL! :) I also ordered a T-shirt and a couple of Stryper buttons.

The other good news is that, if we can get them, Frank agreed to go to their concert in Atlanta in November, actually just one month from today. It’s a small venue and hopefully tickets will be available when he can get there later this week. I saw them long, long ago. I was a young person back then. Now I’m old, of course, they are too ;)

Hot Hennie Update

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Our hennies egg production has picked up a bit the last few weeks. I have tried to keep them in order, get counts to put up here and all that, but … last week and over the weekend I’ve not been my best, so some things slide. FWIW.

The biggest thing to note though is that I took HawkLady out of the A=Frame the other week, put her under a metal basket that is supposed to go into a shelf thing for a panry sort of setup, but it’s a cheap thing and the basket is strong and not useable in the pantry thing, why not use it?

Upside-down it works to contain one hen. Not wing-flappy-able, but alright. I put HawkLady under it with a small former-catfood-can for water. I took her out since she hadn’t been laying much and had dropped off totally and was loosing more and more feathers. She has had a minny-molt going on for some time, in other words. She looked better after a few days in the new space. She got new grass every day at least once and looking at her today I saw her looking so much better, feathered out nicely for the first time in … and later the boys came running in to tell us that there was a green egg in her little pen. Ah, yes! There was! A beautiful green egg. Sigh.

There’s another that needs the same treatment, she is a Wyandotte, Pointsettia, and has lost a lot of feathers on her back. It’s not nice to see, and not nice for her, a big red target to the other hens in the pen with her. Peck, peck, peck.

That’s what Hawklady went through and it wasn’t that bad, just some days, and with something to do, it works to do it. So I have another basket I can use.

What I want to do then is to get a little pen built to hold the Wyandottes and HawkLady alone. It’ll be easier getting them together in a small pen, rather than getting them back into the A-Frame with the big girls, the Australorps.

The Australorps are laying something most days, up to 5 brown eggs a day, more like 2 most days though. So it’s an every other day sort of thing. The “up to 5″ included the Wyandottes, of course, seeing as we have 4 Australorps, not more. :)

The Leghorns are laying about 50-75% every day now. That’s really good for old women like them. We aren’t sure what to do with them, we’ll get them a light soon and see how to keep them laying over winter and maybe then when they quit we’ll do the deed.

I want some new pullets. I’ve wanted new ones. I’d be happy with more Australorps, or Golden-Laced Wyandottes. I love them both. My Australorps are so sweet, they remind me of an older sweet cat, in general. We shall see what we can do.

It’s been Summer again, very hot lately. It was Autumn-like then, bam! here comes Summer again. The 15-day outlook is pretty hot still. In any case, our Cherry trees have lost most all their leaves already, and our October Glory has a lot of changed leaves, and lost leaves already. This is early for both of these types. I’ve seen other Cherry tree types without leaves too, when driving around the last couple of weeks. It was the end of August when it started for them, and sortly after for the October Glory Maple.

I’ll get some pictures I just took of the trees on here soon.

Praying Mantis

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Last week Russell called me from the backyard to come out and see something. He saw a Praying Mantis, he said, and wanted me to see it and verify it, basically.

So out I trudged and sure enough, on the blue fabric roof (Sunbrella fabric) of their play structure there sat a fairly large brown Praying Mantis.

I hadn’t seen one since I was a child. So I took pictures of it the best I could, but didn’t get any good shots, though I don’t know for certain, I haven’t looked at them on the computer yet, they are still in my camera. I just know I didn’t get at an angle to get a good close-up, he was up on the roof and not in a position for me to get in front of him well. I say “him” not knowing if it was a male mantid.

Two nights ago I noticed that on the front porch, up near the ceiling there was a Praying Mantis on the facing board. We have Daddy Longleg spiders up in the corners, not on purpose, they are just there. There were other bugs flying around, it was dark out and the porch light was on. One little beatle seemed to be the mantid’s preying attention. The molding at the corner of the face board and ceiling seem to be something the mantid couldn’t get over … but I thought that a feign in actuality, and within a few minutes the mantid proved that to be true.

The children and I were watching through the side-light window, by the door. The beatle was running here and there on the ceiling, and came closer … and suddenly the mantid began moving forward again, but faster than it had moved before in it’s feigning movements … and it struck out so fast it was wild, exciting, we all yelled out in glee … it was awesome to watch like that.

Yesterday morning I went out onto the porch and didn’t see the Praying Mantis anywhere, not that he wasn’t there, of course.

Last night I went out and looked, but didn’t notice him out at all. Not that he wasn’t there, of course.

This morning I was up around 5:30 am, and turned the porch light on sometime around 6am, it was still dark. I noticed that the Praying Mantis WAS there, sitting on the back of the glass single hummingbird feeder. The birds weren’t out yet, it was still before sun-up.

I decided to then go onto my computer and look up the insect for info. I did, looked at a few things and then didn’t look at all I’d turned up on the first search page, but went and did some things. The sun was then starting to come up, faint light appeared in the distant sky edges, the black of night had lifted to a gray growing light. I saw that there was a Hummingbird sitting on the end of a bamboo pole the children had stuck into the porch railing. She took off into the October Glory Maple in the front yard, then came back and hovered in the air, and flew away again. I went outside and stood there quite still. The hummer came back and did the same thing. Hovered, but wouldn’t drink as she seemed to want to do.

I went back to my computer and opened a few more pages and nearly freaked when I found this page.

So I got Frank to go look at the Praying Mantis at that point, and told him about it all. He grabbed something to try and move the mantid off the feeder, and it only made the mantid move closer to the end of the feeder. A hummer was around still, and wouldn’t go to the feeder still, I think it knew something was dangerous there.

Frank then got something else and managed to get it off and into the stuff down on the ground, at least. The feeder was freed of Mantis Preying … and not long after a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird came and ate, and has been coming to and fro to eat ever since. But not before the Praying Mantis was knocked off the feeder.

I don’t know for certain that the Praying Mantis was planning on eating a hummer, but it’s very possible, and I wouldn’t want that happening on my front porch. I’ve had feeders up for several years and never saw a Mantis around and I’m glad I looked on the web when I did.

If the Mantis shows up again I may get a jar habitat set-up for it and capture it for the children to study and feed it bugs and all that.

“To find adults, look on flowering plants and at porch lights in August through late September. Adult males will often fly to porch lights in the late fall.”

That quoted link just above comes from an Arizona site, but it seems applicable to Georgia, at least in the situation we have/had it’s true that it’s September and we have a porch light that is on at night often and was on when the Praying Mantis showed up on the porch.

Ophelia

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I’m paying closer attention to Ophelia now, tropical storm whom may become a Hurricane soon. It’s interesting to watch her grow and consider her movements.

I guess people in general are dismayed at another hurricane possibly hitting Florida or going into the Gulf. From God’s perspective I can see that He is in control and knows His Purpose is for His Glorification. Storms show the power that He has. The Bible is clear about that.

N. O. was drowned by Katrina, are they on their knees before God now? Doesn’t seem so. Ophelia is in the wings, will she come on stage, and what will be her acting if she does? God knows. We wait to see. We pray for those who don’t know God to consider His ways and kneel before Him. We pray for the safety of His Chosen, and that His Will is Done, that people will see God and His Truth through these times of trouble.

UPATE [Sept. 12, 2005 10:49 am]: It’s interesting to note that Ophelia has waffled in and out of hurricane status all weekend and continues to slowly drift up the out coast of the US, now off the Carolina’s … mainly stationary though, threatening, always threatening, and not coming ashore really. God is powerful, will the people in these locals actually consider God and His Ways, as Ophelia seemingly just sits there, mocking them all?

They do need the rain there, on the Carolina coast, and the Georgia coast, they are all down 5 or more inches of rain deficit. They are dependent on tropical systems for replenishment to rivers, creeks, lakes … TWC people talked about this over the weekend on TV. It was notable that they mentioned it, the people in the Carolina’s don’t want a storm coming ashore, but they desperately do need the rain, so it would be better overall if the storm did come in, though no one wishes for damage from the storm.

This has been my position of note for many, many years, since moving to Florida when I was 13, I quickly came to realize the importance of tropical storms coming to Florida, for the needed rains to support lake waters, and The Everglades. With populations growing along the coast, and spreading further and further West into the Everglades, wishes were for no storms to come, to hurtful to the beaches, people’s homes, etc. Selfish materialism. Draining of swamps to make way for communities has damaged the environment, I think, to some small degree at the least. Dry conditions over the entire South US have been a problematic thing for the last decade, further back than that, no doubt, but mainly a large problem this past decade. We in the interior regions of The South are out of droughts, thanks to the storms of the past couple of years. But coastal regions are in need now. I pray that people will heed the warnings, evacuate, leave their stuff and save their lives. Allow the storm to come ashore, the moisture is needed. Without it you suffer droughts of heavier proportions. A tropical storm or minimal hurricane are beneficial. Things can be repaired. My biggest beef about it is the governmental monies rebuilding storm surge swept away buildings. People should live there if they can afford to rebuild themselves. But that’s such an archaic thought, isn’t it? :veryshocked: