Magic mornings

I've been walking up to the end of the driveway with Maddie every morning (at 7 a.m.!) since sometime in mid-September when I had to go out to the bunkie deck to retrieve my coffee mug (having left it there after a lovely Sunday morning coffee with Celeste!) and just kept going.  It is such a gift.  I have seen some amazing skies and watched the landscape slowly change from the deep greens of summertime to the golds, oranges, burgandies and flaming reds of autumn and finally fade to grey.  We have been incredibly lucky too -- I can't count the number of mornings I wake up to pouring rain only to have it stop before we have to head out into it.  Today was like that.  It stormed overnight and at one point I woke up to the loudest, hardest rain I've ever heard -- it's hard to miss the weather when you sleep surrounded by windows under a tin roof!  There is so much water on this land but it's meant to be here.  A heavy rain doesn't upset the balance because it has a place to go.  The creeks swell and rush but don't overflow.  The earth soaks it up like a moist sponge.