I've been noticing the ferns and some of the undergrowth around the edges of our lawn turning brown with the onset of autumn, and now I'm seeing a slight tinge in some of our nearby maple trees. It seems early for the maples to be turning, but it's been a hot summer and they are probably a bit stressed.
     The humming bird came to the window the other day. I think it was saying "Good-bye!" We didn't put a feeder out this year. Fred has usually taken care of that, but he decided it might be a bit too much while he was recouping and we didn't want to start feeding them and have to stop later. But they seemed to find plenty of flowers around our house, even though I paid hardly any attention to my flowers this year, as well. I have perennial sweet pea vines that have found niches in various parts of the flower garden, and they keep flowering most of the year. They are just dying back now, but there are plenty of phlox and hydrangeas - but I don't think the hummers pay much attention to hydrangeas. Probably not much sugar content there. 
     So the humming birds are gone, but there are lots of raucous bluejays, plenty of robins and other birds around. Seems like there are more this year than I've seen in a while. They don't seem to be bothered by Woody being here.
     However, the snakes that used to hang out in our garden walls have all disappeared. I don't think Woody got them - I think they somehow know he's around and stear clear of him. 
     Ok, now I have just found out there is no such word as "stear" - whether you are talking about a bovine creature or want to say that you're going to guide a car or boat, it's all the same. Steer. I did not know that. According to the on line dictionary, "stear" is an obsolete word meaning "to direct." The English language is sometimes pretty complicated - and apparently always changing. Or maybe it's me. It's getting late and I've had a busy day, so perhaps my brain is a little fuzzier than usual. So I'll consider this turn of events  tomorrow. I wonder what word or words will become obsolete while I'm sleeping? Seems like we should get a list of that sort of thing so we old timers could try to keep up. And list all the new words, too. Actually, I found a list of new words and tried to make sense of "chiweenie," "schnoodle" and "Yorkie-poo" - all made up names for mongrel dogs; and then there are the combinations of words like "glamping" or "self-care." And did you know "hmm" is actually a word now? It is used to describe the process of thinking! and "Welp" has nothing to do with puppies - it is an accepted (apparently) form of saying "well," at the beginning of a sentence. I thought it might have more to do with dialect - kind of like old-time Vermonters' casual talk - in the same category as "ain't" or " 'twant," words that are very familiar and more or less accepted as being just part of who we are.