Good morning and welcome to the Monday edition of my Country Musings!  Yes, I know it’s Tuesday.  But it’s still the Monday edition.  I’m just a little late.  As usual.  But hopefully one of these days I will get on track.  Don’t count on it though.  Sigh.  But it has been a beautiful fall Tuesday and almost felt like a summer day.  Almost.  It did manage to hit a temp of 81F.  Not bad for us in September.  Now there are thunderstorms in the area.  I can hear the thunder, not too close though.  Muffin has just decided it was too much thunder so she headed under the bed.  Poor Muffin.  She will likely be there most of the evening.  Speaking of evening.  This is a nice time of year to grab a hot cup of tea and sit on the deck enjoying the wonderful fall colors that are making themselves so visible now.  There is a lot of small birds poking around under the shrubs looking for those tiny seeds which they love.  Except for one white-throated sparrow.  He has discovered peanuts.  As I was tossing peanuts for the blue jays, like the one in the pic above, this little critter jumped in when the jay action quieted down for a bit and started pecking at a peanut.  Hmm, so I broke one open and tossed him a half.  He pounced on it right away, picked it up and off under the nearest shrub to devour his treasure.  This is what I call one of those country pleasures.  But the other is just enjoying that cup of tea on the deck and enjoying the crispness in the fall air, watching the birds, enjoying those beautiful colors, and sipping that tea.  A true country pleasure indeed.  But there are many more country pleasures.  Such as having those cute little chipmunks sitting on my lap and stuffing their cheeks with as many peanuts as they can carry.  Which is normally three.

But it depends on the size of the peanut.  Sometimes they climb all over me.  Sometimes they crawl into my pockets searching for their treasure.  Sometimes they cuddle up close, because they have learned they are safe with me.  That is what I call a true country pleasure.  Then, of course, there is my favorite time of day.  Morning.  Sitting on the deck with my cup of hot COFFEE!  And enjoying the sun rising and shining so brilliantly with those golden rays filtering their way through emerald green leaves which are amazingly still, not even the tiniest of a flutter.  The choir of birds are singing their praises to God.  And sometimes that early morning sunrise is a fabulous array of pink, red and orange stretching out across the wakening blue sky.  This is called ‘Sunset Country’, but could also be called ‘Sunrise Country’.  This is just another of those truly country pleasures.  Then going for a quiet walk along a lakeside trail in the early morning light, a light mist hanging over the lake, the eerie cry of the loon drifting in through that misty covering, not a ripple in the water until the unmistakable SWAP of the beavers tail, so close by it makes a person jump a bit.  But still, a true country pleasure.  A little further on there is a sudden Cronk of a blue heron as he takes off, a bit annoyed that his fishing has been disturbed.  Then a red squirrel begins his annoyed chattering as I pass too close to where he is sitting enjoying his breakfast.  Not much further along the trail another splash!  This time that of the kingfisher.  He comes out of the water with his prize of a minnow and off he goes to a nearby tree to enjoy his breakfast.  More of those beautiful country pleasures.  As I take another sip of COFFEE there is a tug on my pants.  It’s Skamper.  He is standing up as high as he can get, right on his toes, trying to get my attention.  He also wants breakfast, but he just can’t climb up my jeans, just can’t hold on.  But then he gives a big jump and he is on my lap filling his cheeks with the biggest peanuts he can spot.  He looks up at me just before he leaves as if to say ‘thank you’, then down he goes and skampers off to his home.  Would love to know where he lives, but unfortunately, he can move a lot faster than I, so following him would be fruitless.  But nonetheless, it was just another country pleasure.  Unfortunately, we are all too often so busy that we don’t see all these things, or take the time to enjoy such wonderful country pleasures.  And we don’t even need to be in the country.  I’m not.  But I still enjoy the country pleasures that come my way.  I know.  Not my typical musings.  But sometimes it’s nice to be musing about musings which are not musings about musing that are typically musing about musings which I’m usually musing about.  So, take some time this week and enjoy some simply nice country pleasures.  Of course, you might need to slow down a bit.  Enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin. Who is still under the bed.  Sigh.

Good morning everyone out there providing you are reading this otherwise I can’t say good morning if you are not reading this and I really hope that you are reading this otherwise…hmm, there goes my opening sentence.  Sigh.  Lost track of what I wasn’t saying before I had a chance to not say it so therefore I won’t bother trying to remember what it was I was going to say since it likely wasn’t important anyway.  Sigh.  It’s fall.  Or autumn, if you prefer.  There is definitely a coolness in the air even though the days are warm and sunny.  But there is still a noticeable coolness.  Things are suddenly different than summer.  Of course there is the obvious.  The changing colors.  Birds are heading south.  Other birds are coming in to replace them.  The blue jays are busy now.  And noisy.  And looking for food.  Always looking for food.  But they can be good to have around.  If any danger enters the area, such as a hawk, they let everyone know.  And everyone takes heed.  Heading to the nearest place of safety.  Which for Sylvester, one of my chipmunks, meant cuddling in as close to me as he could, hiding in close to my right arm and behind my left hand.  Shaking a bit.  But he knew he was safe.  And yet, just nine days previous he wouldn’t even come close to me.  Now it’s like we have been friends all summer.  Summer.  Sigh.  It is so short.  And gone.  It is fall.  It is pleasantly warm.  But the hot days of summer are gone.  Muffin likes it much better.  She is an odd type.  She loves to lay in the sun, soaking up that heat.  But she doesn’t like heat.  Amazing.  There is another new chipmunk in the group now.  His name is Checker.  Mainly because I was thinking of checkers at the time.  The game of checkers.  Anyway, for a couple of weeks Checker was around but wouldn’t come near me.  Much like Sylvester.  But this past Friday he finally came and took a peanut from me.  Now it’s Tuesday and he crawls all over me just like the rest of them.  Didn’t take long.  Amazing what you can do with peanuts.  Everyone loves peanuts.  I go through a lot of peanuts.  But what can I do?  From small to large, everyone eats peanuts.  Like Theodore here.

And you didn’t think they ate peanuts, did you?  How am I supposed to say no?  Sigh.  That’s a real pic by the way.  Except for the word peanuts.  Amazing what shows up in my back yard.  Okay.  Maybe not him.  But there was a couple of black bears this summer.  One was about 400 pounds.  And yes, they will eat peanuts.  And most anything else.  Which is why I really would prefer they didn’t come around.  Muffin agrees.  She does not like bears.  One was on my deck last night.  I think it might have been a different one again.  Sigh.  Speaking of peanuts.  The other day Rusty was on my lap getting some peanuts from me when one of the rock doves decided to let loose and poop on my arm with a great big wet one.  It splattered.  Naturally.  Made me groan rather loudly and move my arm rather quickly.  That, of course, scared poor Rusty.  And he took off as quick as he could.  And peed all over my leg.  For such a little critter he sure has a big bladder.  That made me groan a bit more.  I was sitting on the steps at the time.  So I put my hand down to give myself a little push to get up.  Another groan.  My hand landed in more fresh bird poop.  Sigh.  How do things like this always happen to me?  How?  Things never happen to anyone else.  Or at least they don’t admit it.  Sigh.  Like the other night heading off to the bathroom.  In the dark.  And I walk through a spider web.  Another night I went to drink some water, I always keep a glass of water handy,  and there was a spider web over the top of the glass!  That was not at all nice.  It’s enough to make a person jump up and down, pull their hair (which is getting harder to do), bang their head against the wall, fall on the floor (what do you expect after banging your head on the wall?), and, and…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s okay.  I’m calm.  I’m fine.  Sigh.  Fall can be nice.  Those beautiful colors.  It’s what comes after it that takes all the fun from fall.  The first winter forecast issued says we will have a long, very cold, and snowy winter.  In other words, normal.  Sigh.  Oh well.  I hope you all enjoy your week, and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.