Fall Transitions

Fall has come around again.  My priorities shift. I must empty that rain barrel!  I must mow and pick up these leaves! Forget the lawn and get a snow plow contract! Even the birds have shifting priorities. On Sunday I was lucky enough to be here for the cedar waxwing migration.  All the tiny crab apples were snarfed up by this noisy group of beautiful birds. I most enjoy watching them come to the slim pickings.  All the easy crab apples are gone and now all that is left are the ones at the very ends of the branches.  Cedar waxwings are acrobatic in their ability to hang upside down at the end of a bobbing branch to get that last sweet morsel. I went out to fill the bird feeders and standing there waiting for me are four turkeys.  They graciously stand aside so I can hang up the black sunflower seeds and peanuts. As I raise my arm to lift the bird feeder to to the hook a black capped chickadee touches my ear with it's right wing and lands on the feeder.  Geez Louise!  Hungry much? The weather is cold enough to put suet out again. All the woodpeckers were waiting. Hairy, downy, red bellied, pileated and Northern flicker return. I put another suet by my mailbox so my postal carrier can enjoy them too.  The wood peckers find the new suet location within a few days.  Someone ran over a possum at the end of my block. I come home Saturday night at dusk to see a red tailed hawk standing on my road having a possum burger. I come to a stop in my yellow car and gawk in awe as the hawk flies up with entrails trailing out of it's beak.  I walk my property and decide which plants I want to kill and which ones I want to nuture.  Buck thorn!  You are going down.  Poison Ivy?  You are going down! Goldenrod?  You can stay. Big blue stem? I love you so much I am going to come out here and burn you. Amur maple? I just don't know how to quit you. You are so pretty but you are spreading all over and I don't like that. Fall is difficult but not as difficult as the transition from youth to senior citizen. Peaches, once so delicious, taste terrible and apples are good again. The stores are full of pumpkin spice.  The decorations come and go so fast I don't know which holiday is next. I will transition with as much grace as possible.  Should I put snow tires on my car?  Oh, wait. Never mind.  Snow tires were important in the 1970's. Ironically that was when I could not afford any tires much less snow tires.  I remember one year my mother made ornaments for the tree out of milk weed pods. She carefully spray painted the milk weed pods with silver paint and lined the inside with red velvet. Then she glued tiny angelic figures inside.  The tiny white angels looked so pretty against the red velvet. This was a very long time ago; long before she transitioned to the "pagan" holiday tree of only bears. I find it comforting to know that what seems important today may not be important tomorrow.