...another day on my Heavenly Hill: August 2013

FYI.. the 1^st day of Fall isn’t until September 22^nd but for some reason, myself and quite a few other people I’ve come across seem to be ready for it now, as in TOMORROW !

Other than letting our legs grow their winter coats or at least attempt to do so (hubby has his limits) there are many more reasons we love to see Autumn taking place. Not much unlike the way we feel about the transition from Winter into Spring. Change is inevitable, whether it be seasons, our lives or ourselves.

For today’s Blog let’s focus on the seasons….maybe tomorrow I’ll take on the others :)

SPRING VS. AUTUMN/FALL………….. they are both equals as far as I’m concerned. So when I say VS. it’s more of a highlight on each one rather than a competition.

Summer is great and Winter can be a wonderland, but there’s just something about Spring & Fall that sends me into a tizzy… Webster’s dictionary defines “Tizzy” as: A highly excited and distracted state of mind. So yeap, they send me there, literally. My manic phases show their creative & hyper little selves during the transitional months of March, April & May and then again during August, September & October.

The following things could be listed as triggers, signs or favorite things… never the less, they are all cues that a change is a comin’…

#1. Birds chirping VS. Geese flying South.. There’s nothing like getting woke up in the morning to that sweet sound of the first chirps of Spring… until the new wears off and we threaten to throw rocks at those same birds 2 weeks later ..and what a beautiful sight to see how the geese form those perfect V’s every Fall as the head deeper South… until the black birds decide to follow suit in flying South in droves and rest in the trees by your house leaving a poop field behind.

#2. Trees budding & flowers blooming VS. Leaves changing colors & Mums for sale.. How excited we get when seeing the beginnings of plant life every Spring! ….until it’s time to trim the trees & the darling little children pick all your Heirloom Iris’s …sorry Mama/Jean Morgan, I promise they will grow back and Maddie-Layla-Ethan won’t do it again..hopefully :) Oh, how beautiful the Fall colors are and how lucky are we to live in Tennessee to witness the awesomeness of this event each year! …well, until it’s time to rake all those leaves up and bruise ourselves to pieces from slipping and tripping on all those various fallen nuts. I also love Mums…except they are too expensive and they dry up and die before Fall is even over.

#3. Fresh cut grass VS. Tobacco barns smokin’ … Breath it all in…aaahhh.. Oh how I love the aromas of both of those things! Talk about an easy peaceful feelin’..makes me smile & feel warm inside… also makes me sneeze, eyes water & gives me a sinus infection every time.

#4. Birds building their new nests VS. Squirrels gathering nuts for the winter…. How cool is it when you see those tiny little bluebirds building their nests out of twigs, grass & pieces of discarded string …until after they lay their eggs and become the most territorial and aggressive birds around. Just look at what they did to my car!

Those squirrels.. well aren’t they just the cutest things! Trying to carry all those nuts and acorns around, scurrying all over the yard…. and dropping them all over the top of your house at 4:30 in the morning which sounds like mini bombs going off on your new metal roof and fighting each other for the one that rolled away.

#5. Ocean Breeze & Sunflowers candles VS. Pumpkin Spice & Cinnamon Potpourri.. What? ...that’s all…nothing more to see hear…move on…….

#6. Getting the swimming pool ready VS. Getting the fire pit ready …… Everybody is all anxious about that first swim of the season! Buying oils, sunblocks & floats. Planning family BBQ’s and waiting for the temps to get in the 80’s …..but then you realize you “forgot” to lose that extra ?pounds during the winter and the sunburn you’re gonna get because you forgot to reapply the lotion…oops :(

…. And that first fire J a little wine, some hotdogs and all the makings for those yummy melty smores..yuuuummmm… then you remember how much your clothes are gonna reek from all that smoke from the fire because your hubby used some old oil & gas to start it and there’s always “somebody” that has one glass of wine too many and drops 5 out of the 12 hotdogs you have into the FLAMING ROARING fire, by the way, it’s FLAMING & ROARING now because one of the MEN decided it wasn’t a big enough fire so they threw some more gas on it!

Oh, and the smores you’ve been waiting for, well the same wino that dropped the hotdogs in the fire has gotten the munchies and eaten most of the chocolate leaving you with broken graham crackers sticky marshmallows (sticky due to their spilt wine)

#7. Tank tops VS. Chunky sweaters …. Warm weather, WOOHOO! Time to pull out the summer clothes! ….until you see how your arms look in those sleeveless shirts forcing you to either start lifting weights and doing thousands of arm circle exercises or say, “I don’t care!” and throw caution to the wind (just like your upper arms every time you get excited and raise your arms high in the air and clap or wave at folks!) ….As far as the chunky sweaters, well there’s no real downside to them. If you’re a Skinny ~~heifer~~ Girl then you are just as cute & comfy looking as can be and if you’re a Healthy ~~plump~~ Girl then big ole sweaters are great camouflage :)

#8. Boat rides down the river VS. Hayrides down the back roads… Time to crank up that motor and head down to the lake! We can’t wait for the smells of the outdoors and feel the rush as we tube down that river ….but then you get smacked with the stench of waste from all the spring floods and speaking of smacked, wait till one of those dang Asian Carp jumps up out of the water and smacks you right upside the head! Yeah folks, they’ve begun their Tennessee invasion! Google it :)
Everybody loves a Hayride! Jumping on that trailer with your family & friends grabbing the blankets and hot cocoa, telling ghost stories or singing campfire songs…. yeah, it’s all fun and thrills until that crazy Uncle in the family jumps out & scares the kids and you have to spend the trip back to the house consoling them and reassuring them there is no such thing as MONSTERS!

#9. Picking peaches VS. Carving pumpkins … ain’t nothing like a good ole Georgia peach, even the ones from Alabama are pretty juicy …just don’t get too carried away and buy 6 bushels of the things and panic because there’s no way you’re ever gonna be able to can them all before they rot !

Those pumpkins… so many things you can do with those pumpkins. Eat them, decorate them, decorate WITH them … just don’t forget that they are organic in nature so they will spoil & rot! (that’s for you folks that insist on leaving them on your front porches until Christmas time)

…….And last, but not least

#10. Opening up all the windows to let that fresh air in VS. Washing all the comfy quilts & throws to cover up with because of the chill in the night air……
What? …… you expected me to have a negative twist to these 2 things… ain’t happenin’

So… there’s my Top 10 List of things concerning Spring & Fall… In all seriousness, I LOVE both of those times of year. It’s when I feel at the top of my game, it’s when I feel like anything and everything is possible.. it’s when I feel most ALIVE, the electricity that flows from the inside to the out is awesome and those around me can see it themselves.

There’s a Ying & Yang to everything, even seasons. I’ll take it, because without one you couldn’t have the other and I would probably just melt away like Frosty the Snowman or become frozen in ice like a woolly mammoth during the winter ~~no I do NOT think I am a mammoth thank you very much~~ if I couldn’t re-charge my batteries twice a year. I have been blessed abundantly in so many ways… Our home here on Heavenly Hill is just one of those blessings. It’s here that I have finally found peace and it’s here that I get to enjoy EVERY Season of the year!

Ok, but Spring & Fall are still my favorites. Don’t tell Old Man Winter or Sonny Summer, they wouldn’t understand :)

Spring time on Heavenly Hill….