Echoes of Fall

As I wash the breakfast dishes, I glance out the window.  A cornfield rolls like waves on the ocean, fog lifts from the misty mountains.  Wild turkeys feast on the grain and clouds float as sailboats through azure skies.

Katydids scrape their fiddles and a scarlet leaf flutters on the dogwood tree.  McIntosh apples plop to the ground.  Honeysuckle perfumes a breeze.

I gasp.  Fall's coming and I can't hold it back.  Summer has been too hot, humid, and short.  It seems as through school just closed, and school buses will roar again.  Time marches like a band.

The drumbeat of this season!  Bee keepers harvest their honey.  The shelves of roadside markets glow with golden Mason jars.

Yesterday I stopped at the Misty Mountain Roadside Market.  Queen Ann's lace spun doilies beside the market.

A man greeted me.  "Sample this spoonful of honey," he said.  "This wildflower honey is better for allergies than sourwood honey."

I savored the sweet offering and purchased a quart.  I baked biscuits this morning and smothered them with butter and honey.

Besides honey, fall brings cooler weather.  What a relief from the heat.  I won't grieve the passing of summer.  Soon it will be only a page of history.

The echoes of fall! 

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it," (Psalm 118:24).

Summer, fall, winter, or spring; each season has its beauty!

Sunflowers

After days of rain in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I wondered if the sun would ever shine again.  Everyone I met complained about the rain.  They complained because the fireworks were cancelled at many places during the Fourth of July.  They complained because they had to stay inside, couldn't enjoy picnics or a parade.  How God puts up with us humans complaining, I'll never know.  I even added some complaints myself into the mix.

God is faithful.  The sun peeked through the clouds, blue skies spread a tent above the earth, and I was amazed.  The sunflowers lifted their faces to the heavens and drank cups filled with sunshine. I ran outside and got a good dose of vitamin D.  What a blessing to see the sun again. 

Darkness just has to flee in the presence of light.