Rainy days, balloons and changing seasons

It's my favorite time of year--but here in the high desert the transition comes in fits and starts, a bit of summer, a taste of fall, some wind and restlessness.... And I love it all!

A cold front swept down last week and dropped temperatures drastically for a day or two. It also gave us a bit of badly needed rain. I walked with Belle and Rico in a gentle drizzle Thursday morning and quite enjoyed it. We didn't get sopping wet but pretty damp. Still, the moist air felt so smooth and the scent was sweet, clean and vital. The old song "Just walking in the rain" came to mind but my mood was much more chipper and I was not trying to forget anything nor hide my tears among the raindrops. Walking in the rain here is a rare treat. Either it is definitely not raining or we're in the midst of a crashing, blowing thunderstorm that one would be crazy to venture out in! So this was a gift! We were also rewarded with a rare morning rainbow that day...and of course I had to get a picture! The rainbow was only partial, just to the left of the small house in the lower center--you'll have to enlarge it to see it very well!

Then the weekend saw the local balloon festival. Of course it cannot rival the huge spectacle of the annual Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque but they had about fifty some balloonists. Saturday they lifted off near the small local airport and I counted about twenty-five in the air at once as I walked my canine crew in two shifts. The next day they rose from the White Sands National Park area and I didn't have a great view but still saw a few. I would love to go up in one someday! They say it costs 15-25 thousand to buy and outfit one so that is way beyond my means but since flying has always fascinated me, especially when it doesn't rely on conventional power, it would be marvelous to take a trip! Perhaps my Prince Charming will arrive with tickets someday (ROFL--as likely as the moon rising in the west tomorrow morning!) I only got one picture--battery issue with my little camera messed me up. Last year I saw some of the balloon event in Colorado Springs as we were in the throes of moving and got a shot or two then. That's the one on the right here.

And with September more than half over now, Autumn is very close. It is in full swing to the north I am sure but tiptoeing in here, a hint in the morning and evening when the coolness is more marked, a taste and feel in the wind, really mostly a breeze but bearing a different message than the summer breezes--drier, cooler, more restless. Still have some hummers but they have thinned out a lot and bees are being pesky, probably feeling the season change and trying to prepare for the winter. I saw two beautiful hawks yesterday, hunting over the open area behind our place. I am guessing red tails but could be wrong. They did look like the ones I had in the big pasture area behind my Arizona home, though, so that was a neat thing! I love the effortless way they fly and the wild sound of their shrill cries. They soar and glide, hardly beating their wings at all. Big birds but so graceful. Once I was a being that could fly; I can feel it still, the magical power and pleasure of being free in the sky, sensing the air currents and riding upon them. I dream of it still at times.

This weekend will bring the equinox--Mabon as it is called in the Druid and Wiccan communities, and a sacred turning point on the wheel of the year.  Day and night are equal; the sun hovers over the equator, slipping farther away from us for a season. Harvest time and a drawing in for the rest and regrouping period of winter with its colder, bleaker days and greater darkness. A festival too to give thanks and enjoy the fruits of your labors through the growing times, putting away the sustenance for the harsher times. Although Samhain around November 1 is also a similar holiday in spirit so both are parallel festivals. I'm out of step with many but consider the equinoxes as marking the 'dark' and 'light' halves of the year and the Winter solstice as New Year's though many Celtic/Druid followers say this is Samhain and the opposite is Beltane. Who can say really? Without a time machine to go find what the ancient druids did and believed, we can but intuit and improvise. .

The local pagan community is having a retreat and celebration in a campground off the highway to Las Cruces; perhaps next year I can join them but I am not ready to leave Belle that long right now. She is doing pretty well but still needs a watchful eye--she dives off the back stoop or gets anxious and slips and skids, does not know when to settle and be quiet to rest. So 'Mama" needs to be here for and with her most of the time....  Perhaps I go overboard on this but it is my choice to do so. And I will as long as she is with me.

Some of my online Druid friends will be doing a ritual on Saturday evening--although we are scattered all over the globe we'll coordinate a time and go through it as if we were together. I am looking forward to that. Praying for healing and peace in the world and for those we know who are struggling with health and personal issues and dedicating ourselves to a spiritual path we believe in as a group gives special meaning and honors the day as best we can.

So brightest blessings to each and if anyone would like to join the ritual email me at azwriter427@yahoo.com and I will send you the written guide and the way to figure the time in your zone to join with us.