Blue Skies and Thirsty Trees

It was cooler this morning and Bill and I went for a pleasant walk around Shelley Lake. Odd how mixed I feel looking at the brilliant blue sky. I love blue skies when we are getting adequate rain in between the so called pretty days. These days, a pretty day for me means steady rain because we have had so little of it. I am glad that I was able to go on a nice walk because the heat has interfered with every fresh start I've made this summer towards getting back into a regular walking exercise routine. However, at this point getting adequate rain matters more to me than anything. This afternoon, I looked out at the skyline from my back garden and was dismayed by how thirsty the trees looked. Our periodic short showers have helped plants with shallow roots but the extended drought has started to get to the trees. The top photograph which I took this afternoon, reminded me of the second one which I took in the fall of 2006 where the leaves looked like red stars. The only difference is this time of year it's green and it's not supposed to have that dry look which adds to the starry shapes. It's supposed to have that dry curled up look when the leaves are close to falling but it's not supposed to have that look when they are green and haven't even changed colors. I fear all the leaves are going to die and drop off before they get a chance to give us their showy, colorful look. I have a young maple that has already changed colors. That's close to two months ahead of time where I live. I have a few small trees that may not make it. It's funny but I seriously get thirsty when I see how parched everything looks.
Sometimes I feel like a caricature of an old codger complaining about the weather or my aches and pains. As far as the weather goes, I don't even care as much for myself as I do for the plants and wildlife. I also care about people without the comforts I have. Everyone doesn't live and work in an air conditioned building like I do and for them the summer has been truly brutal here. For myself, the severe drought and hot summer has been mostly a nuisance. As far as my aches and pains go, I also have a lot of advantages. I gripe about the zillion specialists I see especially this time of year as I move into a doctor's appointment a week since the routine follow-up cycle concentrates at 3 and 6 month intervals. But I know I'm lucky to have adequate health insurance and manageable co-pays. Even so, I feel like a bit of a codger. I guess I'm a lucky codger and for the record, I'm not that old. There are people decades older than me that I don't think are old.