Quiet Entry

Purple-Hull pea blossom

The first Sunday of fall, and it has strolled in quietly.

The sky is completely overcast, but no approach of rain. It was chilly enough on the front porch this morning for me to have to don a light jacket. Mrs. Orr and I sat out there, her shelling peas, me watching the birds. A downy woodpecker was on the downed pine, his steady staccato attack ringing across the valley. A pair of titmice took turns bathing in the birdbath while a goldfinch perched at the edge, sipping and watching. A murmuration of starlings in the next pasture swung and swooped and startled my wife with the plosive sound of their whirring wings. A dove strutted on the ground next to the porch, looking for sunflower seeds, and a chipmunk perched atop the deer block by the fenceline, feasting on a private buffet. A gray squirrel arced his way across the yard with a black walnut in his mouth, and the rooster down the road fulfilled his roles as town crier and timekeeper.

The entry of a new season, and a quiet one. This is a time of softness, of muted beauty. It’s peaceable in the heart to savor these moments.

We were listening to the Jeannie Seeley show on Willie’s Roadhouse, the country channel, and she mentioned that this coming Thursday is Mandy Barnett’s birthday. It’s early, but here’s a song from the girl with the amazing voice. I love her name, too…

~ S.K. Orr