Background Switcher (Hidden)

Duck Creek Idyll

Monday, September 15, 2008

It is that time of year, when the evenings are so fleeting and yet so lovely that it hurts. Why didn't I use the long summer evenings better? Why do these have to end so soon? We hurry down to Duck Creek for a wade before the light is all gone.

On the way, a creeper-strangled silo glows in the dying sunlight. How can it be this beautiful here, where we get to live? I want to roll in the sidelit grass.

On the path to the stream, a pawpaw hangs, still green and hard as a rock, giving no hint to the mushy tropical sweetness it soon will achieve. There is a small bowl brimming with pawpaws on my windowsill, and this morning in the dark of a power outage I smelled them ripening. Ahh. Soon I will bite into my first wild-gathered pawpaw.
Lower down in the tree, a pawpaw sphinx, Dolba hyloeus, eats, a pthalo blue spur springing from his hind end. He's done a number on that pawpaw leaf. That's his job. This is Joe Garris' photo of an adult, lifted from a wonderful silkmoth site.

It reminds me of a tabby cat.

Great lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica (so called because it was thought to cure the clap) glows at pathside.
We bring our friend Oona along, and she wades in to have a better look at a colony of whirligig beetles scudding madly on the water's surface.
The dwindling light renders her a Renoir painting. "Mommy all wet, Daddy all wet, Oona all wet," she says, flapping her hands. When and how did she learn to talk? It seems like yesterday she was getting her face washed by Chet, who was afraid she'd fall off the sofa.
Liam skips stones.
Why don't we just go wade in streams? There are so many things to be discovered.

5 comments:

i don't know you but i love your blog...check it out everyday...what a life, filled with wonder and lust....

Paw paws--wild ones? I grew up with paw paws, but I think most folk would call them papaya--tropical fruit. Despite global warming, I don't think of rural Ohio as tropical. Huh!
Oh my--Oona is growing. What a sweetie. And how lucky for all these lovely children (and Chet Baker) to have a little stream to wade in. The best of childhood!

Oooh, I've been asking myself why I squandered the long days, too. I want the cooler weather of Fall, but the longer daylight hours of Summer. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Funny you should wonder why you didn't use your summer evenings better. I'm wondering why I've closed my doors so early...

Julie, you are HOT with these fabulous posts of wading in streams and showing the abundance of natural life you see... It's all downright gorgeous.

Oh, Oona! I remember Chet worrying about her safety :o) She's a little girl now!

What happened to my comment? Durned comment moderation - spoils the lively flow of conversation. Too bad people had to wipe their muddy shoes on Zick's virtual living room carpet; takes all the fun out of the party.

Any-who, I was saying how cute little Oona is. She's not a babeh any more, she's a little person. Does Chet still worry about her? That water seems mighty dangerous for a small, small person, Mether.

~kathi, trying again

[Back to Top]