CHRISTMAS IN JULY

I love “Christmas in July” (sales, promotions, and Christmas movies), but this is ridiculous. The weather has me thinking of hot cider and pumpkin pie.

Yesterday (Sunday, July 10), we had a lot of wind and rain. I wore a sweatshirt and baked banana bread to warm the house. Mike lit a fire in the fireplace. At 4:30 p.m., when we walked the dogs, I wore my winter coat. It was 48 degrees.

 

Then last night, after a late rainstorm, the setting sun put on an unexpected display for us. We had "magnificent effects," as Ina would say. The pictures here just don’t do it justice, but I’m glad to have them anyway.

Today, as I write this, it’s 66. The weatherman says it isn’t going to rain, but just looking at the sky, that’s hard to believe. The July sun is warm, as you’d expect, but it just doesn’t stay out.

Well, on the plus side, it’s a relief not to have to carry water to the garden for a few days. And it’s good to have more water in the cistern. I wonder if we’ll need it. It’s also probable that we won’t have a fire season like that of 2015, which brought devastation to our region, and that's a blessing.

This young buck (spike) noshed just a few feet from the yard yesterday. Mike encouraged me to try for a picture. I turned on the camera and then slipped quietly out the kitchen door and round the back of the house. Of course, he knew I was there the moment I was in sight of him. We gazed at each other for several moments and he let me take his picture. When I took a step forward, he ran. But that was okay. We don’t need him here.

"Is it Big Bird?"

In spite of the rain and the cold – or maybe because of it – the hummingbirds drain two feeders in a day.

We have a resident hen turkey in the draw north of the house. Both Bess and I caught sight of her as she awkwardly ran to the side draw. Bess stayed on semi-point for several minutes but decided against pursuing that big bird. KW