Crickets and chrysanthemums...

It is with mixed emotions that I hear the hot summer air filled with the songs of crickets. They herald the end of the season, and though I love the sound of them, I'm not ready for summer to be over. Then, today we drove past a farm stand that had rafts of chrysanthemums on display. Fall flowers! I lazily let sunflower seeds germinate and grow under my bird feeder, filling a little garden I had hoped to do other things with. Now that their wide faces are in bloom and nodding beneath my window, I rather like them, but they, too, remind me, the season is nearly gone. Sadly, summer is on the wane.



I am grabbing onto the last of it greedily. We'll go to the beach at least one more time, and I have simply got to get into my kayak a bit more.

The hummingbirds will be winging to warmer climbs soon. According to migration studies,some head south as early as mid-July, but most will stay in Maine until late August or early September. They do not tolerate cold at all, and tend to migrate when there are still plenty of flowers and some bugs for travel food. For now our feeder is bustling with activity as the wee things store up the easy energy I provide for them.



The days are busy and full, and speeding by too swiftly. I wish I could hang on to summer a bit longer.