Fairyland

Fall is beginning here in Kentucky.  The nights are cool and the days still warm and sunny.  The trees are beginning to show some color.  It’s a beautiful time of year.

But, the weeds that although being obnoxious in the summertime, really were beautiful when they flowered -  purple, yellow and white.  In the fall, though, those weeds are ugly – with their irritating stick-tights and seed pods promising a bumper crop of weeds again next year.

This morning, though, we woke to a fairyland.

Every morning, the farm is covered with fog that has risen from the Kentucky River and flowed up from the lower areas so that we feel like we are on an island here at the top of the hill.  I watched the “kids” heading off to work and the fog had begun to dissipate.  But then the sun came up above the even higher hill behind us in the east and the fog immediately surrounded us again – even more than before.  The porch railing was covered with water as if it had been raining all night.

Within a few minutes, the sun had conquered the fog and the fairyland appeared.  The spiders must really kick it in gear in the fall.  There are spider webs all over in those ugly brown weeds.  But now the sun is up, the fog is gone, and the spider webs look like fairy wings with big drops of water.  With the sun shining through them, they look like they are dripping with diamonds.  The ugly weeds themselves actually look softer with the sun shining on the moisture.

The fairyland doesn’t last very long, though.  The sun dries the moisture and the day begins.  The rooster is crowing and the chickens want to be fed.  The peppers need to be picked and I need to figure out what is for supper.

But – for a few minutes this morning, my little corner of Kentucky was a fairyland.