Having kept me up all night, just before sunrise I catch the full moon sneaking behind the apricot tree, slipping towards the western horizon.
The apricot leaves have probably achieved as much color as they are ever going to have in this especially dry, warm autumn and are falling quickly now.
I will take any hints of gold the apricot offers and be glad for its continued flourishing, remembering how tiny this sapling was when it came to share the outback garden with me in the spring of 2019.
The Rio Grande cottonwood is beginning to turn gold now too, though without a serious freeze, it’s dawdling.
Grapes leaves have been dropping fast this week, to reveal, today, a bird in hand. Uh…make that in vine. Sometimes I think my plant roommates have a twisted sense of humour. Sometimes I think they just want to crush any competition. I mean c’mon grapevine: what are you trying to do with that recycled teaspoon hummingbird? Protect it from blowing away in the wind? Love it to death? Are the plants trying to tell me “Stop already with all the stuff!”? I do have a tendency to buy interesting things for the garden. Things the garden never knew it needed. Like birds from repurposed metal.
Since we have had only two days so far this autumn when the bird baths have frozen, the conference of (real flesh and blood) birds who gather at the water stations early have not had a lot of reason to talk smack about me or give me stinkeye.
If I’m tardy with warm water for de-icing they certainly let me know.
Recently some rather beautiful little migrants have been hanging out at the birdbaths.
When first I spotted a single White Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) I thought it was just passing through. Having seen more, I’m thinking now that maybe they plan to overwinter in the Garden of Earthly Delights.
There’s certainly room. I’m happy to provide water for year round residents and seasonal migrants alike.
The moon, the birds and I meet up in the garden at dawn while it is still not too brutally cold out and the cloudless skies promise yet another cobalt blue day filled with enchanted light. It’s hard to have a bad day when it starts this way.
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