Stopped on my way to flowers to pull weeds in the driveway. Cone flowers fully open, Evening Primrose in bud, Lupine, only greenery. Not wearing gloves, the weeds woven with spider webs I left and the prickly wild raspberry.

     Sky gray, air heavy. No sun. No birds seen nor heard. No traffic sounds, no rooster. I stood on deck listening to rain fall through leaves as if there was a wall spanning earth to sky, separating woods from yard where no rain falls. Green umbrella completely dry. Two worlds side by side, not illusion. This morning could’ve been a script for the Twilight Zone, a television program that scared me. It probably had more to do with the voices, the music, the unsettling tones; chords that altered the vibration of soul.

     There was light, orange sun, when we ventured out at 0523. No fanfare sky, no clouds, no traffic, nothing to bark. One by one they came inside as coffee dripped into a red cup. Zsolt, as usual, the last, lingered in the kitchen for a biscuit. “Bed.” He walked down the hall. I followed with 2 biscuits having given Ruger his reward already.

     An hour. We (the three and me) spent an hour outside. I sat in my gray plastic Adirondack chair with coffee in a red cup under a green umbrella. Zsolt blocked the ramp, Ruger found a place in the shade of the green umbrella to settle, to look through the railing toward the pond. Dirt dog (Zayne) jumped when he saw something, didn’t bark. He didn’t roll in the dirt that hasn’t been warmed enough by sun. He walked; he watched. He came to the bottom of the ramp, looked up, a plea for someone to play with him, take him for a walk.

     Wary, Zayne looks down the short hall, stays behind me ready to reverse at the opening of a bedroom door. We pass through the kitchen, through the open slider where Zsolt stands on deck waiting. Cool air. Sun tangled in leaves. Blue sky under white haze.

     Sky almost blue, as it approaches the sun, white. Aware that we are the only ones here, Zayne runs for the joy of running. I brush Ruger with the old snow brush. Only 5 birds heard: White-breasted Nuthatch, American Crow, Red-eyed Vireo, Common Yellowthroat, Ovenbird.

     Light breeze moves leaves by the stream as if someone had just walked past. Not me. Not a deer. Not someone else. Sun white. Sky blue with ragged veils, not quite clouds. A few birds conversed, the Ovenbird louder than the rest: American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, Gray Catbird, Northern Parula, Red-eyed Vireo, Common Yellowthroat. Down the road, a rooster greets Sunday.

     Soleil touched the pond, not just reflecting herself, but turning water white. Seven birds did not stop conversing when I slid the door open: Black-and-white Warbler, Wood Thrush, Hermit Thrush, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Ovenbird, Red-eyed Vireo.

Friday, July 3, 2026, 78.9* F, 82% RH, 0809

     Buttercups still sleeping. Sky blue with tire-track clouds dispersing. He is working on a roof again today. Orange sun will rage once free of tree leaves waving in a light breeze. Four birds, only four not added to by listening more: Common Yellowthroat, Ovenbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-and-white Warbler. Air hot, not thick, not like yesterday. Zayne, Zsolt side by side next to my chair alternately using the other as pillow. Ruger, the bookend.

     I went out alone before six to find a photo, walking toward blossoms. Air stale. No breeze along the ground, no breeze in the canopy, eerily still. Sky, brackish. Forward movement, like wading through snow drifts. My lungs tell me everything before reading the air quality alert. I didn’t notice any of this at four when out with the three, who are now sleeping. I did notice the sky, blue, a few clouds.

     Sun, a white-hot glow dispersed by leaves. Air still. Sky determining if hazy white will transition to summer blue. Only six birds: Hermit Thrush, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, Blue-headed Vireo, Common Yellowthroat, Red-eyed Vireo. The stream receding has attained that long-steeped hue of black tea. Clover is releasing her purple. Can we see it move through space and settle elsewhere?