One of the things I have always loved about the Eastern Shore of Virginia is its great weather- long pleasant autumns and springs, hot parts of summer and winter quite short. And fall this year was beautiful, gorgeous blue October skies, perfect temperatures most of the time, trees more exuberant than usual in November with their colorful foliage. The first week of December was nice too– started out in the high 60’s and averaged in the mid-40’s. But last week was a proverbial pain in the you-know-what, with temperatures in the mid-30’s and breezy too. Definitely not my kind of weather at all but sometimes you get to take the bad with the good.
Sunrise Over The Orchard
And wouldn’t you know it, these chilly temps and windy days came just as we were waiting for the installer to come back to add a loop to the dog’s invisible fence. When the fence was originally installed we didn’t run it across the gate area figuring that the gate was so far away from the house that the dogs would never figure out that it was a free zone. Wrong again, the two Newfies figured it all out although it took them a while to do so. Naturally they took advantage of this new-found knowledge to sneak a visit to the dogs next door, next door being about a 50 acre farm so they have a ways to travel to make a visit. And although our human neighbor loves Pumpkin and Honey, his dogs are a bit scared of them. Pumpkin is now sized more like a small pony than a dog, Honey a close second. There is nothing in the world, including food, that Pumpkin and Honey like better than to meet other dogs and start to play, making little woofing sounds and doing the prancing around thing to encourage a game of tag. However, to a small dog, I imagine that the so-called little woofing sounds are more like a deep base barks and the prancing around likely involves having a 150 pound playmate’s foot land on you somewhere. So it’s easy to see why our dogs can sometimes be a bit intimidating to their smaller brethren. In the meantime, before the installer got here ( he does this only part-time so unfortunately, it was going to be another few days ) as the person who gets up first, I was elected to take the dogs out for their first duty call of the day, usually in my fluffy warm bathrobe, fleece scarf, maybe even gloves. The last couple of days before he came were cold and windy, unusually windy, I had been muttering hurry up, hurry up, HURRY UP as the dogs dawdled around. But then Tuesday the wind was gone, it was just beautiful, with crisp, calm air. Out there about 6:30 am, the sun was just coming up over the woods, the sky an azure blue, punctuated with small, fluffy clouds, everything overlaid with a deep, deep pink glow, just gorgeous.
A Little Sunrise Water Colour In Shades Of Pink And Violet
Zipping Honey back inside, I grabbed my camera, setting out with Pumpkin to try and capture the wintry scene. High overhead, honking geese were heading in the direction of our neighbor’s pond– the sounds always intrigue Pumpkin, although I’m never sure if she can actually see them, she does love hearing them. I was a bit late to film the very deepest colors over the orchard but the waterfront was starting to pink up nicely. Click, click, click, then back inside for a hot cup of coffee, a pot of “Machipongo Morning”, a delicious blend from the Eastern Shore Roasting Company located in Exmore, Virginia. I brewed an extra full pot because the weatherman had said we were going to get an inch or more of actual white flakes before it turned to rain. Since Northampton County almost always gets rain instead when nearby places get snow ( the moderating influence of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at our very narrow southern tip), when the weatherman says snow, I always want to make the most of this little treat of Nature, by just relaxing, coffee mug in hand, watching the flakes as they fall, fall, fall, knowing that likely they will be melted and gone by the next day.
