Yesterday was an especially good day.  I’d completed the October issue of Horizons Magazine the day before, and had just finished placing some last minute ads and proofreading.  That meant I had the weekend off – yay!  When I took the garbage out about 9:00am, I noticed the air was cool and crisp. These are my good weather markers: when it is still cool on my birthday, April 10th, I know it will be a mild summer and mild hurricane season.  Meaning it won’t be oppressively hot and muggy all summer.  That we’ll have summer storms to take the pressure off. When it begins to cool down on my brother Bobby’s birthday, September 9th, then I know it will be a mild winter, meaning few freezes. Especially if the acorns are already out by then.  So the good weather continues right on time.

I took a walk around the property for the first time in a few weeks.  While I was mending from the head/chest cold I had attracted, and then finishing the October magazine, I pretty much just worked and slept and didn’t venture out into the yard much at all.  One thing a lot of non-Floridians don’t know is that yes, Florida is like you see it on tv, but between May and September, you have to add the heat and the humidity and the misquitoes into every scene.  The heat can be oppressive if you’re not used to it.  90% humidity is typical. If you’re outside and smart, you’re covered in sunscreen and insect repellent.  Which you continually sweat off due to the humidity.  Even skinny girls sweat in Florida.  So whatever your hair looks like in a steambath, that’s what it will look like in Florida in the summer.  Your hairspray will reactivate itself into a helmet within an hour.  Whatever your makeup looks like in a steambath, that is what it will look like in Florida in the summer.  Go with the flow and get natural, or you’ll make yourself miserable and end up looking like a clown.

So when I can take a walk in my yard the end of September and spend an hour wearing 3 layers and not break a sweat, I notice it.  I love it when I first notice the weather change.  It makes me all giddy, like good things are happening.  As I walked the trails, I could tell the armadillos have been at it again.  They root around through the soil and leave little burrowed up piles of dirt and leaves in their path.  I like it because it keeps my ground nice and porous, so everything grows well.  They also dig up neat things like little animal bones that I try to piece together and figure out what they are.

I noted that I really had the air potato vines under control this year and felt proud I handled that.  I picked up a lot of dead palm fronds that had come down in a recent wind.  The pine tree had a really big branch down, and I will need help dislodging that one.  It’s long and heavy. I think I missed some kind of storm, because there’s a lot of deadfall in the yard.  Living in the a/c means I miss the sounds of what’s going on outside.  This weekend I get to spend time clearing the yard up.  That’s a favorite thing to do, is play in my yard.  I like to cut the overgrown trails and sometimes wind them a new way for a season.  This summer, I was cultivating the wild grapevine to rope into arbors, so I have long strands of it suspended from shepherd’s hooks, awaiting my attention in October.

I can see the gopher turtle has been busy rebuilding its burrows. I give her privacy to do her thang.  She moved her burrows from the east woods to the west when there were so many rains a couple of years ago.  Now she has a sunnier burrow in the palmetto field, and a shady one in the east jungle.  I’m like her as I get older: I want a second place to go to when I want a change of scenery.

I could hear the roofers working on the house to the east of me yesterday when I was out walking the land.  They must have been on a break because all the hammering and sawing had temporarily stopped.  The sounded like they were enjoying a good day sitting on the roof, and it was fun to listen to.

Then the squirrels saw me out and came running, hoping for peanuts.  It has been a long time since I gave a squirrel a peanut. I learned my lesson: they can get out of hand and too domesticated.  Nonetheless, five squirrels came out, chasing each other and enjoying the change in weather, same as me.

There was a light wind out and I could hear the bamboo rustle from 50 feet away.  It’s been growing so quickly, having bamboo is like having a pet, rather than just a plant.  It has such personality, and is so responsive and interactive.  I like to sit and watch it, and sit underneath it to meditate. I feel myself growing as it does, creak by creak, inch by inch.

I can’t wait until the temperature drops to about 75 and I can open up all the windows.  That’s a great thing about living in nature: getting to listen to it.  I am planning where I will put my tent this year. I like to camp outside when the weather is cool, and look up at the stars as i fall asleep.

I’m thinking of having a tree house built in the east woods, and maybe a zip line through it as well.  I don’t climb my trees as often as I used to, but I still like to be high up off the ground looking down into the clearing.  To be up as high as the birds as they rest on the branches under the canopy.

I used to go up and sit on my roof, as well. I like being as close to nature as I can get.

Tuesday is the Fall Equinox. How will you celebrate it?

Of interest: 3 Rituals to Celebrate Autumn Equinox

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LISTEN FREE:  Connecting with Your Angels, Guides and Teachers