I'm starting to notice the sun going down earlier. Around the solstice it was going down around 9:15. Tonight the sun dipped under the horizon a few minutes after 8:45. Hints of what's coming. The misty, marine morning cleared up into a nice afternoon.
Some days I am more wolf than woman, and I am still learning how to stop apologizing for my wild. -- Nikita Gill
It was misty and cool when I left the house this morning. Inklings of future autumn, perhaps. As a result, all day today I've had the Carl Sandburg poem Fog stuck in my head.
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
It was a good week. A long time friend was in town and told us a story that she learned from her grandmother. Any week in which I learn a new story is a pretty good week. We were sitting out on the deck, looking at the fir cones that pelt the house when the wind comes up. So the story goes like this...
A long time ago all the mice caught wind of a terrible thing that was going to happen, and they all became very afraid and were scurrying around looking for a place to hide.
They came to the cedar tree and asked it, "Cedar tree, cedar tree - can you help us hide!?" And Cedar said, "Alas, I have nothing left with which to hide you! My bark is stripped to make clothing, and hats!"
The little mice ran to the next tree and cried, "Hemlock, oh Hemlock! Can you hide us!?" Hemlock stooped over to hear them better - that's one way to tell a Hemlock, often their crown is bent over to listen to the mice. Hemlock sadly said, "Alas, I have nothing for you today, little mice!"
The little mice then ran to the Fir tree and said, "Fir tree, fir tree, can you help us and protect us?" And the Fir tree looked at the little mice and thought for a bit and said, why yes, and it opened up all of its cones and they scurried in and nestled into the cones and the cones closed around them. To this day, you can see the little mouse feet and little mouse tails sticking out of the Fir cones.
How cute is that story!? SO cute!
And we went to Wolf Haven to see the wolves, and that's always a good thing to do. One of these times we'll go for a walk in the prairie, but not this time.
May you always have a lovely tree to lend a hand in a moment of need. With love & curiosity,
--Susan