November 29th, 2021 ~ Monday evening (Covid/variants still a thing … closer to home this time … political chaos … wild weather)
Evening came early today … I looked up from what I was doing at half past three and realized my day was nearly gone. I took one look at Annie, lying on the rug in the den … gave her a silent nod and away we went … out for a walk along the cliff. I knew if we didn’t do it then – we wouldn’t do it.
Unbeknownst to most of my friends and family, November is my favorite month of the year. There is no glitter and glam, decking the halls, or wrestling of wrapping paper like in December … and no trick or treaters to watch out for at the end like in October … it’s a quiet month of gratitude and woodsmoke and Mother Nature tucking her world in for the winter.
I used to have squirrels in abundance here – before I had so many dogs on a daily basis (they got wise!) … but lately, I’ve been putting out peanuts for my furry friends (only in the day or the rats get them!) and I have a couple who come to visit and gather. If no nuts are out, the squirrel will sit on my deck railing looking into the dining room with those imploring eyes … begging me, “Please sir, I’d like MORE!” All my squirrels are now named Oliver!
I love watching them scamper away … sometimes they’ll stop by the violet circle out front and dig a little hole and drop said peanut into it and then pat the dirt down over it. I love watching them do that. It’s just so sweet. I’m sure they don’t remember they’ve just left a tasty morsel in the ground, two steps over from the garden frog keeping watch over the shaded garden patch … from all the peanuts I’ve dug up when gardening, I certainly think they do not remember! But I love watching them, hunched over, their question-mark tails behind them twitching. We have native squirrels (brown) and then “brought in ones” (gray – people have a fit over them) and some chipmunks. I like them all. More peanuts for everyone!
November is a peaceful month … one of deep blue-gray skies and quiet steel seas. It is emerald green lawns and a proliferation of autumnal flowers that I don’t know names of but that doesn’t stop them from blooming. The tree trunks, limbs and branches are dark against the sky and greenery and it’s all just so pretty. The sheep are nibbling away in the meadows – their shorn little bodies white or black against all that greenery.
And this year it came and went in the blink of an eye. I was gone until the 1st … and all of a sudden we are saying hello to December. Today was our first walk all month – how can that be?
I had that nasty virus (non-covid) and wasn’t feeling up to walking … then it was raining and I was busy building an ark (just in case) and then it was too windy or too raw or too dark or too all of the above. And then there was today … a break in the rain and not yet dark and away we went on our familiar journey.
We had another wind storm over the weekend (resulting in another 15 hours of power lost) … and branches scattered here and there, littering yards and driveways, stuck hanging on overhead wires. I passed several trees where limbs were dangling – not quite completely severed – I felt like I should have taken my clippers with me to relieve their stress.
Annie is a slow walker. As in a S.L.O.W. walker. I keep thinking of hiring a turtle to walk her … but then I’d miss out on our moseying. Nose to the soggy ground (hers not mine) we went down and back … admiring the new landscaping at the new house (beautiful!) … noticing that the Madrona tree must have gotten a good trimming (by Mom Nature and/or the tree company) – either way, it looked happier/lighter. The deer were out in the meadow … I wonder if they ever get dry these days. I would hate (so much) always feeling wet. The horse property with the barn that I love so much is putting in a new drainage field … big diggers dot their property and their pasture has long troughs dug out of the deep green grass.
The roadside ditches are brimming with run-off … we’ve had so much rain lately. We are completely saturated. I watch the water moving along and then hear the gully washing in the random drains along the road … gurgle gurgle swish. Further down there is a little creek bed that is nary a trickle at times but it’s cutting a path to the cliff from the forest. I don’t dare get anywhere near the edge – the ground is so unstable – being so wet – but I hear the water spilling over the edge and am sure there is a waterfall somewhere along that cliffside. I wish I were in a boat sometimes to see the cliff walls and know what they look like from that perspective.
On our way home the scent of woodsmoke curls up my nose and it is exquisite.Why does burning wood smell SO good? And what kind of wood is that person burning in their wood stove? Heavenly! Due to that, even though I’m wet and kind of cold, I’m cozy. It’s far balmier than expected – almost springlike – but there’s a chilly dampness that just permeates everything.
We arrived back home and I resumed putting away my fall decs and all things turkey. I put my autumnal decs up almost 90 days ago … how could that be? Early Sept … and here we are … tucking my treasures away for another day – just like that little brown squirrel. (But, unlike that critter, I’ll remember where I put my things!)
Thanksgiving has come and gone. I always think of the pair of wild turkeys that were warbling under my window a few Thanksgivings ago. I woke to the strangest sound and couldn’t figure out what it was … I thought perhaps an injured animal was in my yard. I looked out of my bedroom window and there by the fence were Tom and his mate (what do you call a female turkey? Henrietta? Trudy? Lurkey?) … gobbling away in my yard. They were my neighbor’s … and probably due to be dinner at some point. I went out and let them out of my yard through the front gate and whispered to them to, “FLY! FLY – my pretties!” I never felt more like the Wicked Witch of the West ever! I didn’t hang around to see if they made it home or heeded my advice but that was a random, very cool thing … and on Thanksgiving!
I’ll finish wrapping up my pumpkins and fall leaves, wreaths and autumnal what-not. I hate to see it go back into the bins. But, glam and glitter wait for no one!
Good-bye November … see you next year!