On the way to school this morning...

we admired the beauty of the watercycle taking place right in front of us. The clouds stood erect on the surface of the water. They look like little straws all in a row. The first frost was on everything else. The grass was frozen stiff. My butterfly bush had the petals shivering for the cold. This might be the coldest day that I have been out in, down here in NC. I love old man winter! I love the fact that he comes quietly but definitively to call upon us and stops by us for just a little time, on his way to visit everybody else. He must not like North Carolina, so he came to visit, just to cheer me up and cure my homesickness.
I'm cured!

I wonder if there are some new baby birds

in that nest in the courtyard. It is too high for me to see up there. I can't even tell what type of bird built it. It is a very beautiful nest and I just can't wait to make the acquaintance of the birds who did.
It nearly tripped me, looking that high to see the nest.

The rose bushes heard me talking about the peonies

and decided to put on a dance for me today. I walk past them everyday and usually they stand very erect and pompous. They leave the dancing to the less glorified ordinarily. They noticed that they weren't getting any press, so today they danced around almost wildly but none the less in syncapation with eachother. David danced before the Lord and these royal bushes put down their regality today and praised God with all their might!

Cow manure and peonies

New sets of flowers means playing in the dirt and smelling the odors of cow manure. I love it. The colors of fall include new flowers the trees redressing in their Halloween costumes and the birds hiding out for the chilly weather.
I just can't wait for the peonies to do their fall dance for me. They are practiced and ready for the fall flower festival. The dance will bring out the best in the courtyard and will delight all of the onlookers. Those who can see their dance, those who participate in their dance and those who imitate their dance in their own way. We are not only dust in the wind. We have the delights of all of these sights and smells and thoughts and sounds and feelings to imbibe on this journey through this terrestrial scene. We usually perseverate, or overuse one or more of the senses and neglect some of the other, just as useful ones, to our own loss and sometimes deterioration.
High on cow manure and peonies is far better than high on sugar and guar gum and chocolate.

"I looked and behold there was a great multitude which no man can number..." Rev. 5:11

Our eyes will be engaged in the thrills that are prepared for us in heaven. Let us enjoy the beauty and lessons of the sights on earth and enjoy the beautiful gifts that God has prepared on earth for us richly to enjoy. I see that the bluejays do.

Tiny birds used the spider webs on the bushes

for trampolenes. They started at the left side of the bush and hopped from web to web til they got to the end. After a while they were having so much fun that momma and poppa bird jumped in. It made me wish I were a finch to watch them. Mrs Finch is far more strict with her birdlings, even than Mrs. Robin. They have to be, because they are so tiny. One mistake can cost a life. Their bedtime is while it is still light and don't let those little ones peak over the nest. I saw momma finch peck the baby so firmly and the little one went right back under the covers and went to sleep. I'd better get some of that discipline into me.

I made the acquaintance of the finch family yesterday

There was a beautiful little family of finches putting their children to bed in the tree outside my job yesterday. I just loved watching them. They acted like they didn't see me and hid under the leaves and went to sleep.

Purple Mountains Majesty

If you don't find me one day, I went rolling down a perfectly delicious hill at work. It is the perfect hill to roll down. It is just the kind that you could roll and roll and not come back from.
Mrs. Robin introduced me to it and ever since I have admired it from a distance. It is impudent, as well as immature for a 46 year old to roll down the hill at work. I guess that is why people ski. It is the thought of rolling down the hill on your feet. I couldn't think about going skiing but I would lay right down and roll down that perfectly manicured hill and thank humanity for letting me do so.
Decorum aside, of course; then, if I lived to tell about it, I would write about the feeling of rolling down that hill. I would imagine it is like the mountains at Rochdale which I was never brave enough or immature enough to roll down like everyone else. Life is too short to be too grown too soon.

The ARGUMENT

FULL MOON WANDERINGS Last night, the fawn children

left school after dark. It was a full moon, so mother Doe was not afraid that they would get lost. They know their way from school home.
They did have a little problem crossing the street, though. At first, it was dark when they touched the firm surface of the asphalt street. Betty and Denise wanted to run home, but curious Joey thought he saw some tasty treat on the ground and it was a bug. He stood there enamored with the sight of the bug on the surface of the ground when lights started to come toward him. The sisters came out to guide him to safety, but that was too close for comfort for the three and they were happy to get home to mother Doe safe and sound and tell the story over their midnight snack.

Oh, My Word! That Mr. Bluejay is at it again!

Mrs. Bluejay must've been giving me the heads up that it is always spring in her relationship. They came back from up north all full of ginger and vinegar and flitting around like a couple of younguns in my back yard. I was trying to vaccuum and they were interrupting me with their shenanagans.
Sunday morning after it was all songs and sweetypie's with them. The birds know how to keep it going.

Pop, out came a fat little acorn!

I knew you were coming said Mrs. Bluejay as I walked past her today. I saw her tug and tug at the ground and thought that of course she had gotten a juicy worm. She dislodged her treasure and carried it to my feet as an offering and a present. It was an acorn. A little larger than the one I had offered her last year when we first made our acquaintance. I don’t know what she means by this offering. I thought I had been off base offering her that acorn, but evidently not!

I started walking around the building...

What a beautiful autumn array of colors and folliage. The colors of autumn and the warmth of the south seem not to match eachother.
On my break, I get to walk around the building and admire the scenery. I see that the spiders seem to make tremendous use of this season to spin kites and sails that catch the wind and flapped profusely. It looks like there will be a contest today on the bushes for the insects to bounce across the bushes. They look like a series of trampolenes and if I were little as a mouse or a sparrow I feel like I would enjoy bouncing on them like a trampolene.
What really attracts me around the building are the hills. I want to roll down those hills and enjoy the beauty of the grass as I roll. I could just see myself landing at the bottom of the hill and crashing against the trees at the bottom.
Why did you roll down the hill, Mrs. Walker? Because they were beautiful. That is not a sufficient answer and they would take me to a hospital to study my psychosis if I would. So I hope that you young people roll down every hill you see so that you can look at the hill when you come to work and say, I know how that feels because I did that already.
The sparrows are grieving this week, because they lost another one to the bouncing against the sun on the window. I just wonder if the sparrows don't allow their sparrowlings enough freedom so that they don't fly into the window like that. I am respecting their sadness this week.