Summer's end....

I know summer is not yet over, but it is waning. I know that to be true, because my creative energies are increasing! Fall is always my most creative time of year. I don't know why, but I do acknowledge that the seasons affect me. Summer makes me cranky and lazy; fall finds me with a frantic need to create new things, overflowing with ideas; winter is my time to be productive. It is my mule-work time. And spring sends me outside, wanting to sketch, travel, and grow with the garden.

We were at the cabin for the first few days of this US holiday weekend. The hummingbirds are not yet gone, even there in the mountains. But they are spending as much time filling up at the feeder as they can, getting ready for the long trip south that will come very soon. This one let me photograph him several times. The second photo, face-on, could be any bird, without the view of his long beak or the brightly colored feathers of his backside. He was almost as curious about me as I was of him. Or maybe he was annoyed that I disrupted his drinking time? 

I love to take photos of the hummers, and have way too many in my photo files. But it is such a challenge to capture such tiny, fast-moving creatures. I just can't resist grabbing the camera with the long lens on when they are around.

Last summer, my husband  found a H.U.G.E. spruce tree, waaaaay up a bumpy road on the other side of the mountain. It had a double trunk, and had fallen right by the road. We cut and brought back to the cabin a truck load last year, but there was a lot of the tree left. So we had to go back for more. It was still there, so this time, we brought back two truck loads. Each of these logs are about my arms length across. They will dry over the winter under a blanket of snow, then he will split them next summer. This winter, we'll be burning what we brought back last summer. Can you look at the photo and almost smell the forest at the top of the mountain?

This little guy is my proof that the summer is ending. Booker watches the chipmunks closely from our cabin window. They are stuffing their little cheeks as fast as they can with the fallen scrub oak acorns, stashing them away for the winter ahead. I hope their industry is an indication that we will have a real winter this year, unlike the poor excuse for winter we had last year!