Everything is slowing down…even the droning of the bees is slower, more sonorous. I can almost hear each breath between buzzings as they perform their slow acrobatics in the field. The cats are languorous and lounging wherever there’s a bit of shade, under grasses or on top of shady arbors.
Cottontail on top of the arbor
Miss Lightning, chilling in the grass
Hydrangeas are blue as an October sky, and SummerTime is all around me.
The roses are in their second bloom and sweet new buds are appearing….There’s Peace in my little Valley………
But always, too, there is Danger. Always one must be wary……
Though I love to skip over the river rocks and splash into the water…so, too, do our resident reptiles……It seems everybody wants to soak in the sun’s rays….like this long, wiggly black snake, the rest of whose tail was hidden under the rocks behind him….
or this Big Boy Rattler!! who was spotted right after the landslide and flash flood of last August.
Yes, it’s beautiful up here in this mountain valley, but one must never be complacent. One must always be prepared to show—and share—respect for all God’s living creatures. So, when I slip out to smell the roses or admire the blue globes of the hydrangea bush, believe me, I whistle a little tune and peer closely under the lush green foliage…for anything that wants to get out of my way as much as I want to get out of its!
Views from Annie's Cabin 
yep, you have to be careful. The pictures are beautiful–but tell me some one killed that rattlesnake. I could hardly look at the picture. Snakes are the only thing I’m terrified of
Hey, Beautiful Jean—Holly told me you’d hate that picture! Actually that snake was up the mountain a bit and not a threat. and you know, that I know, that there’s something very Biblical about Women and Snakes! I only put that in the story because when people see the pretty pictures they think all’s lovely and there’s no danger anywhere…whereas, in every Walk Thru Life….there’s danger, of one kind or another…..
I love you!