The Last Light of Day

A quarter moon has risen over the eastern sky on the last day of May.  This moon has brought us so much!  I may practice but cannot truly summon the words to describe what I feel under this moonlight.

In the meanwhile I stroll and whisper softly to our sleepy baby as the last glimmering speck of light fades in the west outside the nursery window.  A rabbit grazes the grass at the edge of the driveway.  A white tail doe nestles in the spruce glen just below the birch smoke that floats down the hill in the gentle lake breezes.  Grouse hunker deep into the slash pile that now is home.  There's no doubt that black bears are roaming the forest looking for an unkept trash can or bird feeder.  Somewhere along the Brule River moose are bedding into a plump bed of sphagnum moss.  Whippoorwills chant.  Bats feast on the freshly-hatched insects.  Owls stealthily assault unsuspecting rodents.  Wolves are surely hunting their way up and down the drainages of the North Shore under the first moon light in a week or so.

The overcast conditions of the recent week have now faded into a weak high pressure system from the north.  It will most likely freeze tonight.

So the fire burns.  The acoustic music plays.  Penelope gives a few whimpers and fades away into another moment of rest.  Maybe the quaking poplar leaves passing by along the trail from the day's hike to the meadows accentuate her dreams?  Either way the last light of day gives way to darkness.  Time to rest...