100 year birthday party for Fabian Windmill in Geneva. Though originally built in 1850, the mill was moved to the Fabian property and reassembled in 1915. Photo courtesy of fellow windmiler Brett Larson. — 100 year birthday party for Fabian Windmill in Geneva. Though originally built in 1850, the mill was moved to the Fabian property and reassembled in 1915. Photo courtesy of fellow windmiler Brett Larson.

Rain this morning, but only a tease. Enough to settle the dust and ease the threat of fire, though a fire ban remains in effect. This is why I prefer spring and fall—perfect, sunny, warm, days are boring. I like rain, wind, ice, fog, storms, sleet and snow.

A big band of small jays are working back and forth in the border between bay and forest, and they are not being quiet about it at all. What with jays, crows, ravens, and merlins all around, its a marvel any other wildlife survives in this region. I'm guessing it's frogs on the menu tonight.

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The Oven Bird

BY ROBERT FROST
There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.