.......here's what we found on this morning's walk!!! A wild turkey feather! Right in the path where I saw five of the turkeys recently, near the pond. Isn't the closeup pattern wonderful?!! I hope they find good cover when the hunting season opens for them. We don't allow hunting of any kind on our properties, and thankfully it's all pretty much "natural" with woods and lots of cover and food for wildlife.

Our walk today was just wonderful.......after suffering so many months with the awful record-breaking heat and humidity this summer, now we have 65-degree mornings, and very comfortable days with the skies not quite, but on the way to being the special shade of blue they turn when autumn really settles in. Our drought is still upon the land, and no rains in sight again for this week; the older trees are even showing signs of suffering......the sycamores have dropped a good half of their leaves two months earlier than normal; and we are seeing leaf edges of other deciduous trees on the farm turning brown, curling upwards and dying. We here in N.C. are daily praying for rains!