Is New England Not Beautiful Right Now?

Hello. It is deep into September and I am just writing my first post of the month. And, I have just responded to several of you who kindly commented on my last post, about the urgent need, still, to plant trees. It was brought on by the fires in the Amazon of Brazil. There are fires in Indonesia as well, massive, same reason, land clearing. Please, consume less. Let more trees live, add more to their places. Make room for the world of bio that depends on trees–including other trees, birds, dirt, insects, microbiota, humans, plants of all types, animals that make forests and wetlands and jungles their homes, even including ice in the glaciers, ice in the polar caps, temperatures that support the world of bio at each latitude.

Birds, now, birds like warblers, sparrows, finches, pretty, small, singers of spring and summer, keepers of grasses, trees, and microbiota, these small spots of beauty are disappearing. The report just out, the number of birds in the US and Canada has fallen by 29% since 1970. There are 2.9 billion fewer birds taking wing than there were 50 years ago. What are we doing?!

I cry, while I still can look up and see blue sky, and massive clouds, and taste rain on my tongue. We have the resources. Please let us protect them. Here in New England, rain usually falls well; we have not been enduring the floods and winds of the southeast, massive storms that rake the plains and the small islands that poke into the Atlantic. But here in New England, as everywhere, our coastline is receding. Every element of our Earth is in turmoil.

On the Friday before Labor Day weekend I came down with pneumonia. This is part of the reason for my silence. I have spent many, many hours sleeping. Some hours lying and looking out windows. Some hours sitting on the back porch .

Many people have told me to rest. And so I am. Well, my body has also forced me to rest, because if I try to defy it it knocks me down. I miss my bicycle! I watch with envy pedalers passing by. I am not a good patient, I am not patient. But, should you find yourself in the grip of pneumonia, listen to the wisdom! And if you’re lucky enough to live in the northeast, particularly, New England, delight in the autumn.

So I finish this posting. I began this morning. Then did stuff, nothing strenuous, but stuff, and now am too tired to add. Adieu. Breathe. Plant. Count birds. Inspect the types of grass in your yard. Check out the dragon flies.