12 days left in August and counting…

Posted on by Laila

“This was one of those perfect New England days west coast days in late summer where the spirit of autumn takes a first stealing flight, like a spy, through the ripening country-side, and, with feigned sympathy for those who droop with August heat, puts her cool cloak of bracing air about leaf and flower and human shoulders.” ~ Sarah Orne Jewett

I’m sure the late Ms.Jewett would not mind the liberties I have taken by substituting west coast for New England in her famous passage,as there is no other proper description for this time of year, and this kind of day. The dew was heavy upon the sunflowers in my backyard this morning,and as I quietly watered the garden, the cool cloak of late summer air was indeed, bracing my shoulders.

It rendered a sudden feeling of anxiousness at the impending end of summer vacation and everything that comes with it. 12 days left in lovely August and I do not intend to spend much of it inside my house, but rather enjoying what is left of this ripe month with my kids. These are the days I revert to my roots and feel like a modern pioneer woman. There are blackberries to pick and freeze for the cold dark days of winter, vegetables to process and fun to be hand in between. I will check in here and there,share my photos and moments and hopefully a story or two will come from these next 12 days…but until then,remember, there are only 12 days left in August.Make the most of them.

9 thoughts on “12 days left in August and counting…”

  1. Me too Laila, me too! As I hung the clean clothes on the line this morning I heard a branch snap down towards the creek. There were the bucks, a spike (who always appears first) and then the magnificent three point alpha male. A perfect moment. I’m going back outside now, there’s wood to stack and garden to tend to. Have a glorious, sunny 12 days of August!

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  3. Laila and all. Look on u-tube, twin baby moose play in sprinkler. This was in Alaska. Too cute for words. Mother moose was not concerned in the least. I was surprised, she would bring her babies so close to human habitat. But, there they were.

    My son and family live out of town, on five acres. In winter they have many bird feeder stations. My daughter-in-law and a squirrel were in dispute. The squirrel insisted on storing his acorns in the bird feeder, and the seeds couldn’t go through. So, my daughter-in-law cut a milk jug in half, and put the squirrels acorns in that. The squirrel was very upset, and gave my daughter-in-law a good scolding, for stealing his/her acorns. Later on in the day, the squirrel opened the little roof, and put his acorns back in the feeder. My daughter-in-law and the squirrel, battled over the entire winter. The squirrel finally won, it didn’t give an inch. It chattered ans scolded my daughter-in-law, every time she moved his stash.

    I want more summer. We have only had a couple of weeks of sun, up here in hinterland. A cold wet spring, I feel cheated, drat-it-all.

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  5. Can’t help but say this … there’s something else to remember, too.

    Today — August 19, 2011 — is the 69th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid in which the Canadian Army was asked to do the impossible and paid with over 900 casualties in the first hours of that sunny August morning.

    Canada’s top soldier (“Father of the Canadian Army”), General Andrew McNaughton, never fully recovered from that tragedy. Couldn’t help thinking of him today when his grandson, General Andrew Leslie, went public with criticisms of DND.

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  6. Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the
    Stooks arise
    Around; up above, what wind-walks! what
    lovely behavior
    Of silk-sack clouds! Has wilder, willful-waiver
    Meal-drift molded ever and melted across skies?

    —Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
    Laila – Please do take some time off and enjoy before the rains. Maybe take the kids out to the country for 2 or more days I am sure you will all enjoy that. I’m thinking camping and maybe towards southern interior lots of fruit and veggies there. But what ever you all do have fun and enjoy. So Ahh – Plant you now, Dig you later – Read you later, sweet poetaster – Yea OK, bye

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  7. Funny that I’ve been retired for five years now, but the routine of so many years in the school system as student and teacher still brings on that sense of ending as August progresses. I do a lot of vegetable gardening, and find that there is the signal to plant a few things for fall and winter harvest, as well as overwintering, but the growing system is coming to its slow period, and I’m always sad to see it go. In my retirement, I’ve made a point of being involved in the community, in some forms of political action and what have you, but I’ve been careful not to get carried away so that I have the time to indulge my reflective side. It’s a great tonic. I hope you see this after a couple of weeks of time “away”.

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    1. I see it now Dan..lol… we are hanging close to home, enjoying daily jaunts and delights as the mood strikes. I know what you mean, that internal and external unspoken signal that harkens back to our common roots, the chores of our elders before us. Oceantor you made me smile this morning, thank you!

      Photos to come over the days, reflections of August to look back to in the cold dark rainy winter, maybe some poetry and passages.Poetry is my outlet, and August always brings more writing than any other month for all the reasons we love it so.

      Kim,even though my fireplace burns natural gas not wood, I feel that collecting wood urge still too. Growing up we spent many an August evening stacking cords of wood in the shed for curing. My dad had a system where the wood we burned for one winter was from a year earlier, nice and dry, and you can imagine how big the shed was.I still can’t stand the sight of a poorly stacked woodshed…good honest work the smell of sawdust and chainsaw fuel, sore shoulders from splitting wood- I complained at the time as a teenager, and yearn for that humble work now as an adult. I satisfy myself with a well stocked freezer and cupboard, gleaned from nature, and drive by the sawmill to inhale the lovely scent of fuel and wood chips.

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  8. …and blackberries. There is satisfaction in gathering.

    Mary, that’s an interesting report, interesting how he got shut down by the bureaucrats he recommended axing. There is no doubt that the Canadian Forces are top heavy and resistant to change.

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