My lower back is still acting up a bit, although it is better than just two weeks ago, thanks in part to changing chiropractors. One thing that gives me relief is walking, so most evenings when the mowing is done and the light starts to mature, I walk in big circles around our patch of bucolia with a camera on my shoulder.

Sometimes I throw weeds to Buxton the goat, other times I see how close I can get to the rabbits that prowl the pastures. I calculated tonight that it takes about eight laps around the house or about four laps around the entire mowed portion of the property to make a mile.

The flora of springtime is giving way to the flora of summer. Gone are the peach blossoms and iris and henbit, replaced by the wildflowers of Oklahoma like Indian Paintbrush and Black Eyed Susan and, just tonight, the first of Abby’s Rose of Sharon. Soon the driveway will be lined with the huge fuchsia blooms, teeming with bumble bees. Summer is almost here.