November has been a fickle month so far. Warm and balmy one day, cold and blustery the next. The cooling of the earth can be very dramatic. Two weeks ago we were basking in unseasonable 70° days, last week we hit a frosty 18° one morning. We had high winds and hard rain for several days. Friday night it snowed. Very dramatic.
Speaking of drama, on Friday and Saturday the school put on its annual musical. This year it was “Rumplestilskin Is My Name” and Josiah played the part of The Prince. It was a great production and the kids had a fun time performing. The Howe children have been heavily involved in every musical production the school has put on. This one was the last however, there will be no more Howe children at Northern Potter after Josiah graduates in June.
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| The final scene of the play. |
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| The seniors in the cast. |
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| Josiah's crew. |
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| What the parking lot looked like after the play on Friday. |
I thought that all our summer birds were gone. The swallows and bluebirds went away way back in September. The turkey vultures left in October. I hadn’t seen any robins or red-winged blackbirds in weeks. Then on Tuesday there were robins in the front yard. I heard them first and couldn’t believe my ears. There were five of them in one of the maple trees. They didn’t stay long. No doubt they were stragglers from somewhere up north heading south as fast as they could. Then on Thursday red-winged blackbirds showed up at the feeders and they’re still here. I heard one singing in the snowy dawn light on Saturday morning and it made my heart ache. That’s a spring sound and one I won’t hear again for many months.
Activity at the feeders is high right now. All the year-round visitors are here plus now the winter visitors are back. On a typical morning I can stand at the kitchen window while sipping my cocoa and see cardinals, juncos, white-breasted nuthatches, red-breasted nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers, blue jays, goldfinches, pine siskins, mourning doves, and several kinds of sparrows. I love to watch them. They bring life and beauty to my dreary winter world.
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| The garden on Saturday morning. |
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| The house on Saturday morning. |
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| The barn on Saturday morning. |
Saturday was the Holiday Craft Fair in Genesee and we were there with our barn quilts, Christmas ornaments, and nesting dolls. It was held in the new fire hall. Orders for barn quilts have increased lately, mostly people ordering for Christmas gifts. It keeps me busy.
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| Working on barn quilts. |
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| Our table at the craft fair. |
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| The craft fair at the new Genesee Fire Hall. |
On Thursday we had a load of mushroom soil delivered – ten cubic yards dumped on the driveway. I’ve been trying to distribute it to the flowerbeds here and at Shillig’s, but the weather hasn’t been very cooperative. First rain and then snow. The snow that fell on Friday night is still lingering in a few places today. It’s already started to warm up and is supposed to stay in the 50's all this week. This week I’ll have Josiah to help me at last. For the past two weeks he’s been at school late for play rehearsals and not home until after dark. We’ll finish spreading that mushroom soil this week. I have just a few other outdoor tasks to do while the warm weather lasts. We’ll put up the outdoor Christmas lights. We’ll winterize the beehive. And then, I think, the cold can come.
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| Mushroom soil waiting to be moved. |
As I read and watch about the turmoil tearing the world apart in other places, it seems like I live on another planet sometimes. All the war, destruction, hatred, and terror seem so far away. Here in our quiet corner of the planet we have our troubles, but they are small compared to the events shaking the wider world. Today my Sunday School lesson was on 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus in the New Testament. In those ancient books Paul foretold perilous times that would come in the last days. A time when men would be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Paul’s words, written 2,000 years ago, read like the headlines and top stories from this morning’s news. I know that the world’s troubles affect us all, no matter how remote the place we live, but I’m thankful every day that I live in this remote and quiet place and not in the midst of the turmoil. I sorrow for the suffering of people at the hands of the wicked. I’m thankful that I have the scriptures and the words and counsel of living apostles and prophets that tell me that, though it is hard, these times were foreseen, we have been warned and forewarned. And the perilous times will not last forever, the Lord will come again and the earth will have peace. I’m thankful and glad to know that.
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| Sunrise this morning. |
