September!

What a phenomenal day. It's funny how the last 3 weeks of August were so deathly hot, it was close to 100F every day, and that's highly unusual for around here. People were struggling to walk, sweat dripping down the backs of necks, faces red from both sunburn and exhaustion, dogs lay in the driveway and barely lifted their heads to watch us walk by, certainly not enough energy to bark, ...phew....not liking that heat.

Overnight...August 31, it rains. It's like Mother Nature took at look at our calender and decided to go along with it, the weather turned cool and crisp, I saw a few leaves fall off trees and the forest was spectacular. The air was so clean and fresh, the rain drops glittered like (dare I use the old cliche?) diamonds on the leaves. The smell of a damp forest trail just can't even be explained, but if I could bottle it, the forest wouldn't be safe from the perfumeries trying to compete with me.

It was still early when I went walking, I like how this picture shows the sun on the hills on the left, but the shadow is still on the right. It was not silent, but the sounds were forest sounds, chickadees, tanagers, blackbirds and even crows were all singing and calling, it was a cacophony to enjoy. Even the squirrels were scavenging in the tree tops, i thought at first it was raindrops coming down, but it was just the squirrels dropping pine cones, not sure if it was on purpose or just by mistake.

A sure sign of the end of summer is the bright red rosehips. My Mother always told me that they were chock full of vitamin C and would keep scurvy away. I tend to think that I eat enough oranges to not have to worry about scurvy, but none-the-less, good to know. As a matter of fact, I picked a bag full and came home to make rosehip loaf. It's in the oven right now, so I'll post a picture of it after it's done. I made rosehip tea one year, and it was revolting, so I hope this isn't as bad because it took me hours to seed them...a rosehip is smaller than a cherry, and chock full of little seeds. Of course the seeds are probably the healthy part, but I have heard that, while they won't hurt you, the seeds have tiny little hairs on them that can irritate and cause "itchy bottom syndrome" And that I do not need. And nor do you, so if you ever cook with a rosehip, remove the seeds. Thank you Euell Gibbons.