In an effort to continue my walking habit for as long as possible I’ve been getting up early.
Hubs and I set off just after sun-rise…
We go in silence. Conversing for a full hour before I’m properly awake is absolutely not me!
After all, in Florida my only companions before dawn were a pair of dogs.
We trudge down our driveway enjoying the breeze from the hundred acre woods,
turn left onto the lane and traverse the hardest thousand feet of the hike disturbing bunny rabbits
and sometimes a road runner,
and near the top of the gravel road a dog may run up to us,
nudge us with his wet muzzle and circle our ankles.
“A gentle seeing off,” I murmur as I watch him head home after asserting ownership of this part of the road…his part.
“Hello! Goodbye…” Hubs chimes in,
then drops off at the neatly baled field to do matins from his Book of Common Prayer,
a new app I’ve downloaded onto the ever versatile iPhone that he loves.
I continue up the hill making a mental note to come back later for a few of the sunflowers to grace my kitchen table,
We rejoin for the return lap and as we pass the horse farm we encounter a copperhead sprawled in the centre of the road, very much alive.
Hubs looks around for a weapon having recklessly left his machete at home. He finally uses one of the empty trash cans to roll over and over the venomous creature and succeeds in putting an end to its life.
“Was that a fur ball Callie threw up the morning?” I ask randomly once the danger has passed.
“Nope.”
We seek the shady parts in the open spaces where either there are no trees or they are casting shadows the other way, long and dark across the adjoining fields. We weave this way and that along the dirt road and notice four vultures keeping sentry on our neighbor’s roof,
a surprisingly menacing scene.
Finally we reach the cool, leafy overhang of our part of the lane and slow our pace as we descend,
pausing for a moment on the bridge to watch the creek trickle by.
As we draw adjacent to our gate I stop to listen to the buzzing coming from the tangled woods,
“That’s either the largest bee colony this side of Weston or a mass of flies feeding on rotting vegetation…”
“Or mosquitoes swarming on the standing water…” Hubs offers. I shudder.
We hurry up our driveway, wet and tired.
The temperature is rising and we need our morning tea taken on the front porch where the morning sun is blocked by the house.
Yoga waits patiently until the afternoon.
A routine reversed to suit the season.
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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