Oaks in Serried Ranks

A light filled shot was hard to come by today as the sun never came out and the sky was a cold and rather dismal.grey. I liked the view of one of the smaller oaks in our field backed by several different varieties of other oaks. The grasses are quickly turning yellow and they will be coming to mow the field in a couple of weeks, so I decided to take a picture looking down at our back gate and across the street to Wildwood Mountain with its steep vineyards. Vultures were circling overhead as they often do, but it is difficult to capture their grace in a still photo as they catch the thermals and circle around without ever flapping their wings. The prayer flags which I hung from the lower branches of the small tree are still there but, like the skies, they are looking like the prayers they carved are now more failed than hopeful. I think it is time to get some new flags and launch some new prayers....

Moises, the Squeegee King came today to wash our windows. I was attempting to tell OIlMan how I thought he should trim the wisteria which is growing on the arbor on the other side of the gate in this picture when we heard a voice calling us from the porch. Moises always comes in November and May but we failed to get him on the calendar and had been wondering when he was coming this month. Fortunately we were home, and he washed all the imprints of birds which have flown into the windows...he calls them 'angels'...all the windowsills and the windows inside and out, and sprayed and replaced the screens. Originally we thought we should be able to wash the windows ourselves...they are big, but no tall ladders or mullions are involved. We both tried it and agreed that all we succeeded in doing was making them look worse!  Moises is a pro....'It's all in the wrist', he's fond of saying.

We are having a big Salade Niçoise for dinner tonight. It is generally a favorite summer meal of ours, but I think tonight we'll be eating it in front of the fire!