Summer's Winding Down

I once saw a plaque that describes where we are seasonally. "There are two seasons: fall and waiting for fall." So true for an autumn lover. 

As my husband and I drove toward Syracuse, Indiana, about 11 a.m. today we saw browning corn stalks, fields of yellowing soybeans, and blooming goldenrod. Technically autumn is about 3 weeks away on the calendar, but in my heart I feel it advancing. 

A beautiful Sunday found us dining at the Channel Marker. We sat on the covered deck/porch. We saw a few boats arrive and dock to enjoy waterside dining. The channel linking Lake Wawasee and Syracuse Lake has lots of boat and watercraft (such as jet skis) traffic.

                                               

I had shrimp tacos and my husband had coconut shrimp.

On the way home we stopped at Heart of the Lakes Antiques. I am still searching for pink or blue earrings. Instead I bought 2 books on sale: one to deconstruct for my decorating folders and one to read. The non-decorating book is a memoir about a family summer home. It was a National Book Award finalist, and the few paragraphs I read were well-written. 

 Today is my last fling of summer. I doubt I will do much interesting in the next few weeks. It has been a strange summer; our day trip to South Haven the only get-away.

Tears

I've felt emotional lately. This morning Warsaw Community Church's online service had two praise songs I knew. I found as I started singing along, I choked up. It has been so long since I have worshipped through music with others as a body. I have missed that. Most Sundays I watch the praise group, but since I don't know the songs, I just observe.

Then this afternoon as I watched on TV the prelude to the Indy 500 where they had a segment with people involved with the race in specific seats of long-time fans telling them by name how much they were missed. For a lot of Hoosiers they have a long streak of attendance that will now be broken. It drove home to me just how much things are different, how many things have been "lost" in this pandemic year. No matter how hard we try to do "substitutions" or offer replacements, things are profoundly changed. 

My husband and I bought KFC chicken around noon and sat by Pike Lake for our lunch. It is in the 80's and somewhat humid but there was a nice breeze. Watched 4 people fishing; didn't see any of them catch anything. 

My portulaca loves heat. Averaging 70-80 blooms the past few days. I could see as I bent over them to take the photo that
many of the flowers were full of pollen. I was surprised there were no bees. Our shorter daylight hours mean the moss roses open up later in the morning and stay open into early afternoon now. The orangey ones are really more pink than they appear.

This morning a humming bird checked out the mauve Veronica stalks but found them not good food sources. That's the first hummer I've seen this summer. 

Tomorrow I will get some more sweet corn to eat with our grilled portobello mushroom "burgers". The local sweet corn harvest will be done in a few weeks; no more until next summer. In some ways I am ready for autumn, my favorite season, but I have enjoyed the summer produce.

Warsaw Farmers' Market

This morning I visited the Warsaw Farmers' Market. I have never felt it is as good as the ones at Goshen and Plymouth. Out of about 15 booths there were 4 selling produce, 2 selling baked goods, 1 selling prepared tacos and other food. The rest were craft items including cloth facial masks. Of course only about 30% of the customers wore masks and those without had no intentions of buying any. Maybe they operate under the mind set of one of the young women in my church. If you are outside you don't need a mask according to her; except you do when you cannot social distance which she overlooks. I had people within 1-2 feet of me without masks. They would come up and browse where I was standing. 

The yellow and purple combo tomatoes are new to me. I prefer to buy a container of mixed varieties. The oatmeal raisin cookies seem quite cinnamony. I had hoped to find some sunflowers to buy. This market has had a few booths selling flowers in the past, but none today.

Winona Lake received a 1.5 million dollar grant to build an ice skating rink. It will not be enclosed, but it will have a roof. The town said it might use the facility in summer for a farmers' market. That would be grand. It won't be ready until autumn 2021 though.

Now the birch trees next to my western neighbors' deck are turning yellow. My prediction of an early fall might be right. However, it has been quite dry the past few weeks so it could just be because of stress.

My ladies Bible study will not be meeting. The leader will pre-record the lesson and make it available on her church's web site starting September 1st. At least I can watch it when it is convenient to me. I will read the passage and do the study questions before watching each week.

Last night we watched on the Grace Village TV channel 2 a concert. A young woman who started playing the violin at age 4 has gone on and excelled. Her father is the chaplain here as well as working maintenance. Rebecca and a pianist played some Schumann and other pieces. The new camera and sound system in the chapel made watching enjoyable. 

I am waiting a month to go to my church. I want to see how the in-person schooling goes. We have several educators and students at the church. The church does not require masks. They are singing 4-5 songs in the worship service.

 Notre Dame is already having trouble with the virus. It switched to online classes. My impression is that residents of northern Indiana are not very careful in complying with guidelines. 

A Gorgeous Day to Walk

It has been many weeks since I walked around my neighborhood. Today it was 58 degrees at 8 a.m., and mid-60's at nine when I headed out. No humidity and a light breeze. Some cloud cover from time to time. Perfect walking weather.

Some plants are starting to hint at autumn. The tree I can see out my bathroom window is always the first to take on color.

The two bushes near my porch have a bit of change. The fothergilla was beautiful last year with golden leaves edged with red. I am hoping for the same this year.

Don't remember the name of this bush. It starts out promising, but last year mostly changed to brown.

There were some differences at the pond. I noticed they took away the white dock. In past years I would sometimes sit there (first looking out for goose poop) and read a book or magazine. There is a layer of green scum across the water. A large tree is down (wonder if from the derecho but we didn't have a lot of wind).

Early last fall I saw some bittersweet berries among the growth. I made a mental note to myself to get some in autumn 2020 to put in a vase. The only berries I saw today are green so I took a photo to try to identify using the leaves whether it is bittersweet. Yes, it is.

Not sure what this foliage is that is turning red.

There are still plenty of pretty summer flowers in the neighborhood.

The garden I can see through my southern bedroom window has lots of pumpkins and a bit of squash.

Also some tall sunflowers.

I have the windows and doors in my condo open to let in fresh air. I hope some of the Warsaw schools have windows that can be opened. Today is the first day of school; some extra ventilation would be good for the students and teachers. 

Vacation Trip

Today we drove 2 hours to South Haven and Saugatuk Michigan for a day of vacation, probably the only "vacation" we will have. God blessed us with nice weather. We stopped near Berrien Springs to use a service station/convenience store bathroom. The business was not open because the power was out. We had already suspected the power outage because none of the traffic signals were working. The consequence of the derecho that went through the other night I guess.

We bought some Red Haven peaches and a few tomatoes at the South Haven Farmers' Market. Then we stopped at the antique mall near Saugatuk a half mile off the freeway. I bought a pair of purple earrings; I really wanted something pink or blue, but the few in that color did not appeal. The round part of this pair is almost like "pressed flowers". I know you can't tell because of the flash glare. For $4, they made a nice purchase.

We ate lunch on the outside deck of the Coral Gables overlooking the Kalamazoo River. I couldn't believe how crowded Saugatuk was today. We had to search a bit for a parking place and found one a block away from the restaurant; we were lucky to find it. The historic part of the town is full of interesting and often artsy shops on tree-shaded streets. We didn't browse other than as we walked to the restaurant and back.

After a perch sandwich and a "tower" of onion rings, we drove back to South Haven to drop in at the Black River Bookstore. Next we walked to the beach though we just observed from the start of the lighthouse pier. Very crowded; definitely not 6 feet apart. As we walked from the shops to the water, we were able to keep our masks off as we could keep distance from others strolling along.

Our final stop was Captain Nemo's for ice cream. I chose Michigan Pot Hole which was a fairly dark chocolate with crushed oreos? or some kind of chocolate cookie. We forgot this is the part of the country where you can order baby cones. The single serving was really two big scoops. A lot of ice cream!

A downer was that when we got home we found the back seat floor drenching wet. The Coleman drink cooler I had purchased when KMart went out of business had leaked. I used it on the way home and was hoping the wet outside was just condensation. No, it wasn't. My camera was in a small camera case inside a tote bag. The water had soaked through the tote bag and the case, and the camera had a slight film of moisture. It seems to be working OK. I haven't tried the extra lithium batteries that were stored inside the case. A paperback book was also damp. I guess we will go back to water bottles inside a small cooler.

I couldn't believe the sumacs along the highways are changing color. Will we have an early fall? I like autumn, but I hope an early one doesn't portend an early winter. Since I won't be going away from the cold this year, I need a short mild winter.

Alabama Mud and More

Today was a beautiful morning to sit next to Lake Wawasee for the boat-in worship. We thought we might go last Sunday, but the rain scared us off.

The music was a quartet named Open Heart from Bedford, Indiana.
It has been awhile since I have listened to Southern Gospel music.
What the songs lacked in sophistication they made up for with heart-felt sincerity. 

The People That God Gives You

I got the call this morning
I can't believe he's gone
Thought he'd be here forever
But one more time, time proved me wrong

It was just a week ago
Thought I should call and say Hello
Now I'm reminded once again
Life's a vapor in the wind

Love the people that God gives you
They're a gift that Heaven sent
Live and laugh and make some memories
Treasure every moment spent
Cause none of us are here forever
That's a proven fact
Love the people that God gives you
Cause one day, he'll want them back

Each day the mirror tells the story
I wonder where the time has gone
Children laughing round the table
They now have children of their own
There may be things you need to say
So why today is still today
You have the chance to hold them close
One more chance to let them know

Love the people that God gives you
They're a gift that Heaven sent
Live and laugh and make some memories
Treasure every moment spent
Cause none of us are here forever
That's a proven fact
Love the people that God gives you
Cause one day, he'll want them back

Oh the list keeps getting longer
Friends and family that i miss
But when I think about what matters most
It all comes down to this

None of us are here forever
That's a proven fact
Love the people that God gives you
Cause one day, he'll want them back

This was a good reminder of how fleeting life can be, especially during a pandemic. The lyrics of the last song really did not speak to me. Definitely not where I had been in my Christian experience.

Alabama Mud

It was a hot and hazy July morning,
Gathered by the river with the birds all hummin',
And the smell of jasmine, hanging on the breeze,
Preacher he was a preachin' from a King James Bible,
When the church hall broke out in revival,
Saints and sinners, fallin' on their knees,
That was the day, everything changed...

[Chorus]
I put my feet in the Alabama mud, waded out in the water
Choir on the banks singing "Power in the Blood, wonder workin' power",
I went under, He washed me clean,
Came up shoutin', "Hallelujah I'm free",
Thank God He met me where I was,
Ankle deep in the Alabama mud.

[Verse 2]
Ever since then, He's been beside me,
Like a north star shinning, He's there to guide me,
Through the bends, the turns, the curves, of this ol' life,
Lookin' back now on the southern summer, I'll never get over all that He put under when he took this rebel's heart and washed it white
That was the day, everything changed...