Monday, October 6, 2008

And This Is What Fall Looks Like

The beauty berries are in full berry and the dogwoods are turning orange and red. The pecans are still hanging on to their leaves, but are dropping their nuts, although we never really get enough pecans to bother gathering. The squirrels take care of that for us. They've been busy for over a month now, picking the nuts and taking one bite of them to determine their ripeness and then throwing them down, usually on a tin roof. You can't believe how loud that is, like a bomb going off. They have tiny arms, but they are strong. The squirrels get in our walls sometimes and I'm not sure what they're doing in there, but whatever it is, it's busy and noisy. Mr. Moon threatens to shoot them but I plead for their lives, crying, "Don't kill them! It would only be a senseless death!"

And I mean that. They amuse me. They chase each other up the roof of my office and through trees and I love the way they sit up on the fence, holding a nut in both hands and gnawing on it with quick, almost human determination.

When Lily lived out here, she sometimes complained that there's "too much nature," which struck me as funny and made me laugh, but then, I love it.

I have a fine, fat green lizard who lives on the screen door to the kitchen. I am deathly afraid I'm going to open the door and smush him in it by accident but so far, he's managed to avoid that. For a few months I had a toad who lived under the steps by the kitchen. He would come out at night and we'd warn people coming in or going out, not to step on him.

A few weeks ago I was over in the side yard, dumping some branches on the burn pile when I noticed over by the neighbor's animal yard that the guinea hens were doing their frantic search beside the fence for their way in. Alongside them a possum trundled, nosing along looking for whatever it is that possums look for. Grubs, I suppose, whatever grubs are. I said to him, "Hey! What you doin'?" but he didn't even look up at me. We expect possums in the night time but we rarely see them in the light of day.

I have seen plenty of snakes in my yard and today I saw a tiny black and white one on the road when I went to take my walk. I have no idea what he was but he had the wide head of the venomous viper and his red tongue flicked back and forth as I leaned over him to get a better look. He was far braver than his size should have dictated and there was no backing down for him as I loomed above him which he rightly perceived as a threat. He made a valiant effort to strike me. I let him be and walked on.

There's a spot in my back yard where there is always a burst of feathers on the ground and I have often seen an owl, just as the sun is setting, swooping down and hitting prey there. I believe they mostly take the pearly doves that roost in the Bradford pear. We have hawks that wheel around the sky over our yard and they, too, swoop in now and then and Saturday morning they woke me up with their sharp, insistent cries. I do not know what they were talking about, but it was a matter of great discussion.

A pair of Mississippi Kites nests across the street and it is always special to see them from my front yard as they float so high above the trees we can barely see them with their split tails and their aerodynamic bodies.

We have spiders on every porch and I did something today which I am loathe to do, which is to take down a web. It was strung between my office and the house and right at my head's level. I do not mind spiders at all, but it was inevitable that I would forget it was there and run into it and the idea of having a large spider dance on my person is not one I like. I took it down with a broom and apologized to the lady, explaining she just could not build her web in that particular place. I feel bad, thinking of all the work she went to to make the web, but still. There is a time and a place for everything and that web was in the wrong place at the wrong time and she needs to go scout out some new real estate.

The passion flower vine has been almost entirely decimated by hundreds of bright orange caterpillars which I am told will become the striking orange Gulf Fritillary butterfly. I have been watching them for days as they make their cocoons on the chain link fence which the vine has grown on and it's a gentle sort of excitement for me to see their progress from worm-like critter to lovely flying things. I do not begrudge them the passion flower vine. I think it will grow back next spring.

Between the birds and the bugs and the mammals and the reptiles which all make their home right here in and around my home, I never feel really alone. Throw in the dogs and it's a constant circus. It's a circus I love and even the plants and trees have their own personalities and throw their grace my way. I look out of the window right now to see the pine cone lilies growing fat and red and the little Japanese maple turning color.

I am more than grateful to have all of this company. I am no Buddhist and have less than a Zen outlook on life, but it is obvious even to me that I am surrounded by sentient beings, large and small. It is a sort of comfort as the world goes crazy and my mind tries to follow down that path. I'm not sure why, but I think it's a constant reminder that what we humans perceive as important and earth-shattering is only so on certain levels, and certainly not on all. Things will go on. The lizards and frogs will eat the mosquitoes and the owls will hunt and the snakes will make their way through the grass and the ants will gather and the squirrels will too and it's all tied in together.

There is a lot of nature here and I suppose my place in it is to observe it all. I think my worst nightmare would be to live in a place where nature is removed from me. Where instead of dirt beneath my feet and trees above my head there would be only concrete and tall buildings. Where instead of falling asleep to the sounds of the crickets and the rustlings under my window of the coons and possums, I would hear the sounds of taxis and garbage trucks and rushing ambulances and police cars with blaring sirens. But I suppose that I would soon learn to tune those things out, just as I have learned not to even wake when the train passes in the middle of the night, so closely it rattles the windows of my house.

I hope I never have to know. I feel like the luckiest woman in the world as I cross the porch and smell the tea olive which is the scent we'll be greeted with in heaven. Or perhaps this is heaven, right here and now, this place I live with the blue-tailed skink and the sweet tea olive and the cardinal flower and the live oaks and the owls.

It is to me. Today it certainly is to me.

12 comments:

  1. Did you know that pinecone lilies are a type of ginger? They're also called shampoo ginger because the milky stuff inside the cones is used as shampoo or in shampoo in other parts of the world. And the leaves are sometimes used to flavor meat. Hmmm, there are a whole lot of them growing behind the Fives...

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  2. First of all, there's that vase again with the pretty flowers.

    Secondly, this was really refreshing getting all the outdoor images. Oh, I loved those small lizards that get on the door. But, with those came the gigantic palm tree roach things; what were those called? Oh, the palmetto bugs. Those did tend to scare me, since they were not only huge, but flew around. But, I am sure they had a purpose too, probably to feed the lizards?

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  3. DTG- I know that when I pick them to put in a vase, they are full of liquid. I might try washing my hair with it this year. I will tell you the results. I knew they were a ginger.
    Flavoring meat? Hmmm. If Mr. Moon brings home a deer soon, perhaps I will try it.

    Nicol- yes, we sometimes call those Palmetto bugs but I think they are simply roaches. They are scary, aren't they? You have to whack them with a crowbar repeatedly to kill them. They're tough. Funny, the worst roaches are the small German ones. If you get those in your kitchen, you might as well burn the house down and move.
    And isn't that a pretty vase? Mr. Moon gave it to me for my birthday and I love it.

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  4. a very lovely description; I'm out of town now and that made me a little homesick.
    P.S. the ginger should be confirmed as there are several similar species some of which are to be avoided; we looked up our types and can't tell if they are the "yummy, good for ya" or the "wow, I may need to live in the bathroom" types.

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  5. I love beautyberry.

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  6. That was a beautiful post. I do miss that part of home an awful lot, along with other things. Every time I come back home, the minute I step out of my car I breath more deeply and weight is lifted off of me. It's the miracles of nature. And you're right about how nature is there to remind us how it all just keeps on going and doing what it needs to do. It's also really beautiful and often entertaining if you are willing to look a little closer.

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  7. Magnum- I'm pretty sure of the pine cone lily ID. It's a fairly definitive-looking plant.
    But you're right. We should never just start random sampling when it comes to what grows in our yards unless we know for sure what we're about to eat.

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  8. Ahh... very nice. My favorite kind of Sister Moon jam! It was like you were soloing in a jazz club.

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  9. you gave a beautiful description ms. moon. thank you for painting a florida autumn for us to enjoy.

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  10. Brother B- I wish. Thank-you. At least it wasn't a blues riff. For once.

    HoneyLuna- I know you love the wildlife. And it loves you.

    Ms. Bliss and AJ- I'm glad you liked it.

    And Ms. Sally- the beauty berry's color is one that you so seldom see in nature. Such a mauvey shade of gorgeousness.

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  11. I have those beautyberries growing in my backyard. I didn't know that is what they were called. Learn something new everyday, I guess.

    And that was a lovely post. There is so much beautiful nature to observe here in North Florida, isn't there?

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