Our highways are loaded with road signs….left lane closed, right lane closed, road work ahead, two-way traffic….we are surely in the season called "construction". When I was driving home from a shopping trip today, I noticed a sign that must stay up all year but I never noticed it before. It was just west of Glyndon and it said, "Snow Removal Creates Visibility Hazard". Hah! What a good feeling to see that sign in the middle of July. The way time seems to fly by, it will not be long before we will have to take special note of the sign about watching out for flying snow from snowplows…..but I ruin our summertime!! Never mind!!
The true signs of summer are all around; I also took note of the ripening grain fields which seems to happen just overnight. The wheat and barley fields are turning that golden-green combination of color that signals harvest not far away. Harvest….grain dust and sunsets affected by the stuff in the air at low altitudes. We get some of our most spectacular sunsets during the days when the combines are rolling and the dust is kicked up into the air. We also get some spectacular moon – rises during the harvest season. Allergy suffererers do not enjoy harvest at all. Poor Buffaloguy can hardly stand to be out in it and then shortly thereafter the goldenrod starts to put its pollen into the atmosphere as if the grain dust is not enough to trigger red eyes, sore throats, and near-bronchial attacks.
My Asian lilies—-the most beautiful of blooming plants—are nearly done with their annual extravaganza. The faithful petunias and zinnias—and my Old Geranium— are holding their own and will—until frost. Purple coneflowers are also coming into bloom. They are also known as echinacea daisies because their roots are used to make echinacea extract for natural herbal medicines and homeopathic remedies. I should dig up a few roots and save them to chew on when I get my first fall cold. Our raspberry patch is on the wane….only 1 empty ice cream bucket got picked yesterday instead of two. The bumper crop has been frozen and packed away in a big freezer in our basement. The raspberries will be wonderful in the dark drear days of December.
My wildflowers from the "Hummingbird Mix" I sowed has attracted a lot of little green hummingbirds; they are not the ruby-throats but they are green with white breasts and are regularly visiting my flowers and my new hummingbird feeder with a perch. The little birds like to sit down and eat! I had not seen the hummingbirds sit still before but they do. Someone told me that if you have food for them and live near woods, you will attract hummingbirds. It is true! Their nests and their eggs must be so tiny! When we were in St. Cloud last week, our daughter in law feeds bluebirds and they come to their deck each morning, noon, and night hoping for another dish of meal worms. They also eat grape jelly for dessert from another plate on the deck. Bluebirds are some of the most beautiful of birds with their blue backs and russet breasts. I saw several colorful finches at the feeding plates in St Cloud also. At our place, we have seen so many goldfinches this summer. They used to be the state bird of Minnesota when I was an elementary student. I remember our fourth grade assignment to make a "Minnesota book" and I particularly enjoyed drawing and coloring the goldfinch sitting on a flowering thistle.
The days are already gettting a bit shorter and that part of full summer is not to my liking; it is inevitable and part of the cycle of seasons but I still do not like the nights getting darker earlier. I never will—-I am a creature that loves the long days and does not like the short dark days of late fall and early winter. I better "buck up" as the old folks used to tell us when I was young. "Bucking up" could solve any pout or snit back then. I do not think young people today would know what "Buck up" means but I wish they would do it just the same…especially those who are miserably spoiled by the adults in their lives.
