Dogwoods

They are gone, every last one of them -- the dogwood leaves.  They are pretty enough in the summer but in the fall, they are a work of beauty in my eyes.

The colors blend seamlessly along the leaves, weaving a gold/yellow, burgundy, red, purple and gray.  What a plaid it would make it you could get the colors just right! 

Dogwoods are wonderful trees.  They don't grow to be all that tall and they like being under the "big guys" in the woods for protection.  Some call them umbrella trees because the tops fan out just like a big umbrella.  The blight that came through the area some years ago did a number on a lot of our trees (we had at least a hundred) but we were fortunate enough to be able to keep two of them close to the house.  One is by the porch window and one by our bedroom window. 

Last June's storm almost did in the one by the bedroom.  I really sweated it out when the tree company came to get the huge branch off the roof and off of the dogwood.  But it sprang back just fine and looks none the worse for the experience. 

Squirrels show up to eat the berries and put on an acrobatic show for anyone who wants to stand at the window and watch for a bit.  I've never seen one fall but it has to happen!  They are crazy, maneuvering to the very ends of the most frail branches to get the prize.  Then I presume what happens, although I have no proof, is that mother nature takes over and redeposit the seeds all about after the berries pass through the squirrel's system.  And that would explain why we have baby dogwoods coming up here and there.

The birds love the dogwoods.  There is a bird flight path along the side of the house where birds flit this way and that.  Yesterday, there were about four birds flying that schematic and then resting in the branches of the dogwood.  I've got to look up what kind of birds they are.  Small, brownish with some markings, including bright yellow!!  I'm sure they are quite common whatever they are, but I like them.  They are so agile and cute. 

Hope you put Kidron on your list of places to visit.  Life goes by so fast that it is really a joy to spend a little time where time almost stands still.  I think maybe we are ready for such a trip ourselves, and I hope we can do that before it gets much colder.

I keep telling all of you to get out and see stuff, and what do I do?  Not much of anything sometimes.  Yesterday, I made a batch of cookies because we were out of candy but we did have a half bag of chocolate chips.  Cookies ... candy ... pretty much the same.  And I've been straightening -- you know, walking around the house looking for things that don't belong and putting them away.  Or organizing -- looking at the calendar and figuring out what needs to be done and when.  Or sleeping -- I don't have to describe taking a nap to you, I'm sure.

Lauren was over yesterday after school and she brought home the neatest book.  It's called Pirateology.  Someone went to great lengths to embellish this book in amazing ways.  The cover reminds me a little of Jumanji.  Inside the reader discovers where pirates went and how they made their way here and there.  One of those places was Kracatoa -- an island near Java, I believe.  This was in the 1700s.  So for ONCE, all that watching of history paid off.  I told Lauren that the pirates could have visited Kracatoa, but that it blew up when a volcano erupted in the 1800s. 

So that spawned a visit to the computer where we saw where it had been and what was there now.  Pretty neat, huh?  We were shocked that 36,000 people died.  They heard the blast 3,000 miles away!!

Well, we are off to the store today to get groceries and that's not my favorite but we might get some candy.  I'm up for that.  Take care, everyone.