Summer’s Over . . .

A fallen leaf is nothing more than a summer’s wave goodbye. — Unknown

Life and summer are fleeting,' sang the bird. Snow and dark, and the winter comes. Nothing remains the same.

— Elyne Mitchell

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I love this time of year. I love the cooler nights and the turning leaves, even though it’s a precursor to the coming darkness of winter. There’s just something in the fall air . . .

The impatiens in the front garden are still doing well, but the vegetable gardens are pretty much done, as are the beans on the fence. I was really annoyed that the peppers that looked so promising a couple of months ago have pretty much disappeared from the garden. Then last week I noticed a second crop of them starting. Whether they’ll be big enough to pick before the first frost is anyone’s guess.

The grackles disappeared. Someone told me they migrate in the fall, but they actually left several weeks ago. This was good news for the other birds in the neighbourhood because it meant I could fill my feeder again. Except . . . the first time I filled it the seeds lasted for a week. The next time, several days. The time after that it was empty by the end of the day.

At first I thought the squirrels were the culprits. After all, they were pretty much partners in crime with the grackles most of the summer. But no, it was not the squirrels. It was a chipmunk. That’s right, one of those cute little greedy so-in-sos! Actually, I think there’s two of them and I’m pretty sure they live under my deck.

Even though I’m pretty sure my pair of cardinals have given up on my feeder, I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet. I have a few other birds that are still faithful, and the chipmunks have to run out of space to store their stolen seeds sometime, right?

Yesterday the granddaughter and I were at the dining room table doing crafts when all of a sudden she said, “Grammy! There’s a duck in the pool!”

I didn’t believe her at first, but I looked out the deck door and sure enough there was a female mallard swimming in the water on the tarp covering the pool. She seemed so small and lonely.

Not wanting to scare her, I tried to take a couple of pictures through the screen door. Then we thought she looked hungry so we tore up a slice of multi-grain bread, but when we cautiously went out onto the deck, she was gone.

We thought we could hear her though, and the eagle eyed granddaughter spied her back in the pond. We snuck up as close as we dared to toss bread at her, but she was rather unimpressed. Let’s face it, bread is not exactly known for its aerodynamics.

I think I mentioned before that we haven’t seen any ducks since we replaced the pool, so it was nice to see her. You can be sure I’ll be keeping my eye peeled, and some bread handy, just in case she returns.