It’s such a beautiful day here in the country that the only advice I could give today is to move to the country! Get away from people looking at you all the time. Houses and yards so close together you can see in each others windows and hear every conversation. Working in the yard under the scrutiny of neighbors eyes. Different radios blaring at you from all directions day and night, traffic noise, sirens, kids crying. Ugh! Been there, don’t ever want to do it again. I sat outside this morning listening to the birds singing, an occasional sheep baaing, a horse nickering and wind rustling the leaves of the aspens.
Every once in a while a car would go by, we are fairly close to the road here, but its a dirt road and not real busy. But the neighbors can’t see me, no one was casually watching me and it was quiet. I can see out across the horse pastures across the road, or the alfalfa field to the east, or the sheep pasture to the west or the woods on the north- long views where the eyes can stretch out as far as a mile away. No buildings blocking the view, no concrete or asphalt.
I sat for a while watching the kittens play in my flowers and the birds visiting the feeders. My dogs were quiet in the backyard, they knew where I was and were snoozing in the sun. If anything was making noise it was those darn red squirrels, fighting over territory I guess, back and forth across the tree in the front yard. A hummingbird was visiting every red Bee Balm flower in my flower bed and she came and hovered in front of my bright pink t shirt to check it out. Doves were landing under the bird feeder to pick up spilled seeds and a kitten started creeping up on them. Birds kept landing at the feeder, they seemed to dismiss the tiny predators presence and the doves let it get almost to them before they whistled off.
The horse farm has a beautiful roan and white quarter horse mare in the pasture right across from our house. I get to watch her graze without having to buy her food and shoes.
There’s something soothing about watching animals graze on a beautiful day. It’s kind of dry here, the fields are turning yellow faster than normal, but it’s still pretty. We have turned the sheep out into the back pasture along the woods to eat weeds out there and what little grass is left. The back fence isn’t in good shape, but so far they have stayed up close to old pastures, I don’t think they like walking through tall stuff, they have to eat it down as they go.
My Oriental lilies are starting to bloom and the scent is heavy on the summer air. They are about two weeks ahead of normal bloom time I think. Casa Blanca, Tom Pouce, La Reve, Silk Road, and a few others are blooming. They seem to survive drought fairly well, I am watering them a little though. What’s sad is out toward the pond, where my lilacs, mock orange, forsythia and other plants are beginning to wilt. The hose won’t reach and carrying water from the pond would be extremely difficult as it would mean going up and down a hill and wading in mud to get to where the water has receded. So they suffer. There is no rain in sight for at least 5 days, and that doesn’t even look too good. This weather has sure been strange, people 20 miles away got 5 inches of rain last week, we got a sparse 1/2 inch. No matter how much you water, plants always seem to do better with a good rainfall. I will have more watering to do tonight. I try to water a different bed each night. Farmers around here had such high hopes this spring for a record corn crop as prices are high, now the corn is rolling up in the field. Most haven’t been able to get a second cutting of hay off this year so hay will be expensive this year. We may have to sell the sheep, it might mean choosing between hay and propane on our budget this year, or we could turn them into lambburger I guess. But we’ll get by and I thank God we are still living in the country.
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