"Problems With the First Snow Contest This Year" by Susan Pearl

 I missed seeing the geese fly over this year on their way to the South for warmer weather.

It is special to me to see the geese formation and I am surprised I missed it. 

I have been marking my calendar for over twenty years.

An older person told me that three months after the geese fly over should be the first snow.

So three months after the geese fly over I mark "first snow" on the calendar.

In the over twenty years I have done this it has not been right,

Not even one time.

So this year on the day of the first snow I am turning the calendar back three months-

To write "Possible Geese" on the appropriate three month prior date.

It may be the first year it could be right,

But after its zero track record I don't really think so.

At any rate, I am not making any bets without the geese verification.......

Unless I call the Wildlife Department.

They might not understand the first snow game I play each year.

I just have to do to a better job watching for the geese next year.

I didn't realize how much I look forward to playing my first snow game

  until I missed seeing the geese.

"Chime Time Takes too Much Time" by Susan Pearl

 We have a lovely mantle clock inside our front door.

It is not only beautiful to look at, but--

Our clock has beautiful chimes to hear each hour on the hour.

But what is it really there for?

It has been years and years since we have heard the clock chime telling us the time.

We stopped winding it.

We stopped winding the clock because- you know how time goes-

Oh, so fast!-----and it doesn't last, so soon it has past.

We just felt we were spending too much time-

 winding the clock to tell us what time it is by hearing a beautiful chime.

Besides, we got the chimes mixed up with the door bell, too.

So we thought not winding the clock was the best thing to do.

The clock is there because we like the way it looks.

But the bonus of the chimes we choose not to use.

Too many trips to an empty porch answering the door.

Plus time spent winding the chimes wasn't needed anymore.

But, I do miss hearing the beauty of the chimes,

Maybe we can wind the clock from time to time.

I think that would be fine.

 

"The Fairest Tree in the Land" by Susan Pearl

 The fairest Autumn tree in the land,

Was planted by the hand of a very wonderful man. 

He was the dad I didn't get to know.

So it was important to me to watch the red maple tree grow.

 He planted the tree in the Fall and he was gone in the Spring. 

Probably not realizing how much joy the red maple would bring. 

I am so thankful he planted the tree. It has been like he gave a special gift to me.