The Rookery

rain, tea and the turning seasons  

[stadighuset]

[woollybear8]

“Sometimes in late summer I won’t touch anything, not the flowers, not the blackberries brimming in the thickets; I won’t drink from the pond; I won’t name the birds or the trees; I won’t whisper my own name. One morning the fox came down the hill, glittering and confident, and didn’t see me—and I thought: so this is the world. I’m not in it. It is beautiful.”

— Mary Oliver, October (excerpt)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[cabinfodder]

Advice from An Old Farmer Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong. Keep skunks and bankers at a distance. Life is simpler when you plow around the stump. A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor. Words that soak into your ears are whispered… not yelled. Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight. Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads. Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you. It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge. You cannot unsay a cruel word. Every path has a few puddles. When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty. The best sermons are lived, not preached. Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway. Don’t judge folks by their relatives. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. Live a good, honorable life… Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time. Don ‘t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t bothering you none. Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance. If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’. Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got. The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’. Always drink upstream from the herd. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment. Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in. If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God. Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you. Most times, it just gets down to common sense.

[flaneuresse]

Into the woods we go by Helena Burgerhout on Flickr.

[shadowscapes-stephlaw]

#acorns #botanicalartist #botanical #botanicalart

[briargeese]

A summer evening, fireflies, and an annoyed doe wishing I would get out of her territory is about as great as it gets.

[flowerytale]

Natalie Babbitt, from Tuck Everlasting

[heaveninawildflower]

August page taken from ‘Through the Year with Birds and Poets.’

Poetry compilation by Sarah Williams.

Published 1900 by Boston, Lee and Shepard.

The Library of Congress Wikimedia.

[flaneuresse]

[bonfires-n-hares]

Forest trinkets 🍄‍🟫🪵🌲source

[zinaida-serebriakova]

Green autumn, 1908, Zinaida Serebriakova

[somberlily]

“Always keep mint on your windowsill in August, to ensure that buzzing flies will stay outside, where they belong. Don’t think the summer is over, even when roses droop and turn brown and the stars shift position in the sky. Never presume August is a safe or reliable time of the year. It is the season of reversals, when the birds no longer sing in the morning and the evenings are made up of equal parts golden light and black clouds. The rock-solid and the tenuous can easily exchange places until everything you know can be questioned and put into doubt.”

— Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic (via shitiunderline)

[llovinghome]

[vamosvaya-deactivated20240715]

grandma’s house

[bonfires-n-hares]

source

[bonfires-n-hares]

sturgeon moon

[rustbeltjessie]

“The sounds of August—cicada screech, cricket chirrup, and that distant whistle. And the near-full Sturgeon Moon, her ruined, beautiful face, looking down.”

— from some random musings I wrote today, this might not even turn into anything but what it is (30 Days, 30 Lines Challenge / August 10)