The Farmer's Calendar July 2018

"Happy Holiday"

 An illustration from the Ladybird Book series,

"Peter and Jane"

We've been visiting this shoreline for more than 40 summers

and now, for the first time, there are egrets around the offshore rocks.

Those rocks were once the exclusive province of double-crested cormorants.

You can still see a few cormorants there, spreading their wings to dry,

but nowhere near as many in the past.

This little piece of waterfront also used to be the haunt of

long-established families who came back every summer to relax and play

with their cousins in the other houses. There were softball games

and Sunday evening hymn sings.

Four Sporting Boys

Norman Rockwell

(1949)

That's changing too.  As children and grandchildren multiply, it's

harder to share the old houses and pay the steep property taxes.

So old families cash in and sell the Victorian-era "cottages"

to high-tech millionaires, some of whom immediately tear them

down and build new palaces on the beach. It's a succession

as natural as that of the birds.

Cormorant Rising From Summer Wave

Maggi Hambling

But something is lost.

There are fewer softball games, and when it's time to haul

the big swimming raft in or out of the bay, there are fewer strong

young bodies to do the hard work. And the Sunday evening

hymn sings are disappearing, like the cormorants.

"The Farmer's Calendar"

 The Old Farmer's Almanac

(2018)

"Some bright morning when this life is over

I'll fly away.

To that home on God's celestial shore

I'll fly away.

I'll fly away, oh glory,

I'll fly away in the morning

When I die Hallelujah by and by

I'll fly away....

"I'll Fly Away"

Ransomed Bluegrass

"I'll Fly Away"

Written by Albert Brumley

(1929)