Slowing the pace...

School started again for me. I have one child in college now. When did all this happen? Where did my summer go? How did my son get so big, navigating campus halls and buying architectural drafting supplies for his coursework? It's trite but true, an age old story; they grow up in the blink of an eye. One day it's crayons and fingerpaint, the next, retractable drafting pencils and architectural triangles and templates.

The saying goes, there are two sure things in life, death and taxes. I'd add a third to that list...the march of time. Fortunately, we can ease back into the school year, since this is the Labor Day weekend. To help me slow back down, I was out of bed early, heading to the wetlands to see what birds I could see. Supposedly the fall migration has begun. I missed an awful lot of warblers in the spring, so I was hoping to catch them on the trip south.

Not so easy. What our weatherman refers to as "valley fog" was thick, rolling across the marsh waters. Not so good for spotting tiny warblers high in the tree, but just what was needed to slow my attention span down and allow me to observe.