Living in an extended drought in north Texas--where the meteorologists take rarified delight in reporting how very many days we've been in "triple digit temperatures"--isn't easy for one of a Nature-based Path. The Lair's Cottage Garden is slowly wilting and crisping in the relentless sun...the deeply rich earth is cracking with the severity of the heat and dryness...the trees are even showing signs of stress. It's difficult to embrace this situation and know that there is a plan in place...that all will be well. The only plant that seems to still be thriving is my darling Brown Turkey fig--it's abundance belies the strife the Garden is enduring.
And so, we're in the high summer season...moving ever nearer Lughnasadh. The daytime skies are piercing blue. Soft pillows of poufy, white clouds whisp ever-so-gently overhead. The earth--though in appearance dry and brittle--is covered in a melodious blanket of cicada burrs, sleepy sparrow chirrups, and the somnambulant buzzing of wasps and hornets. At night, the cicadas give way to cricket trills and the lullaby of croaking toads at our Pond.
On my daily commute, I pass vast open ranchland. This morning, the relentless heat and dryness was nearly forgotten. Longhorn steer stood stalwart in an open field of scrub brush, but this field--part of a huge ranch in our county--was speckled with Prairie WindFlower, Purple Thistle, and the most riotous display of Cornflowers and Chickweed I've ever seen. It was as if She was railing against the weather...showing us Her resiliancy and determination to bring the first of the Harvest festivals in with panache!
I found my ability to embrace the wind and sun and brittle earth once more. Blessed Be!
In the warmth of the summer Moonlight...
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