Of shooting stars and fireflies

We have started to settle into our new house, and at least the first floor doesn't look like we just moved in. We're also slowly discovering the character of our new neighborhood, including its more permanent residents, like this garden snake that welcomed my husband home yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday we also met our more immediate neighbors, a couple from Texas in their late 50s who moved all the way to Ohio for the quiet and for the chance to own a large piece of inexpensive land. Our neighbor, to my husband's dismay, mows every inch of his several acres so it does put a bit of pressure on us to keep up our front and back yards looking pristine.

On the other side of our road, divided by the road that goes directly into my small college on the hill, there is this beautiful cornfield where the corn is almost ready for picking.

At the bottom of our street, closer to the nearby town, we've learned to drive very slowly because the deer like to graze openly in people's front yards. Here there were two does and three fawns that were hardly perturbed when I stopped the car to take their picture.

Yesterday, my husband's big project was building a bird-feeding station. He likes to joke that he invested less than $1 on it because nearly all the materials were obtained from our new property, including the brackets, the post itself, and the stones. We haven't seen many birds at the station yet, but I think once word gets out we will. And, thankfully, we have not seen a single squirrel. (That's Lizzy there playing with something.)

Yesterday I spent almost a solid hour weeding the small huerto, or vegetable garden, which was overrun with weeds, some taller than the tomatoes that are planted there. We now have all kinds of tomatoes, some dill, and one rhubarb plant, so we'll see whether I get any kind of cosecha by summer's end.

The other source of joy in this beautiful new place is Lizzy, who couldn't be more playful and who is always ready for a good romp, chasing one of her balls or toys, like she was in some kind of athletic competition. She is clearly delighted to have such a big yard to claim as her own (one that is, lucky for us, fully fenced).

Because she spends so much energy having fun, Lizzy likes to take a lot of naps, which is quite alright by me. I've also started joining her, making the most of these warm afternoons after I've done my many tasks for each day.

Last night, my husband and I sat on the deck of our new house just as dusk became night and the fireflies were everywhere, making it seem like the tall trees were festooned with Christmas lights.

Suddenly, we noticed that some of the fireflies were flitting very high up on the trees and that, higher still, there were shooting stars intermittently criss-crossing the darkening sky. We had trouble making out what were the fireflies and what were the shooting stars and I thought to myself that this was a lovely quandary to face.

I'll take the shooting stars as a good omen, but every day we should be thankful for it all, the good and the bad, because without the bad the good wouldn't feel as good when it is here.