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.