Mood:
a-okTopic: "Subsidizing Seeds"(6)
The coneflowers and the black-eyed susans have moved beyond color into the production of thistle to satisfy the finches. Cardinals are heavy into sunflower seeds, and somebody has got to be helping the hummingbirds drain the colorful feeders in every corner of the Shire. Bluebirds, none of whom seem attentive to Frodo's public housing projects, are in greater number than at any point in Frodo's memory. Something, thinks Frodo, is definitely afoot, or on the wing anyway, in the gardens of the Shire.
Mr. Beau Neau McKitty seems to have taken leave from his patrol, for Frodo finds a mouse or two amongst the feeders almost every night. It is as if the dip in temperature below 90 has hastened preparation for the days of darkness to come. Since the forecast is for a week of return, does it not seem likely that all creatures great and small will lay low for a while? Frodo is puzzled by the level of activity. Perhaps they are preparing for the election mid-terms also?
This magical season, when football and baseball overlap, is reason enough for Frodo to temporarily hibernate, but it is the lure of the perfect weather and an outstanding novel, that occupy the moments not filled with the preparation for Bilbo's ceremony on Sunday to come. Mick, the Wonder Dog, is recovering nicely from the fear he threw into the heart of the Hobbit, and, except for the arthritis, is making his way around as if nothing bad had ever happened.
Frodo received the urn today. He talked to it all the way home in his motorcar. Bilbo would like to have known about the bluebirds and the cardinals, but the hummingbirds wouldn't have interested her very much at all.
Frodo has been practicing his poetic interpretation of "Oh Shenandoah." It is a process he wishes he could share with he known as the poet, sometimes. He won't be saying anything new, just changing the placement of commas (Oh Shenandoah I long to see you and hear your rolling river. Oh Shenandoah I long to see you away. We're bound away across the wide Missouri. . .)
Perhaps all that is extraordinary is merely a reflection of the changes that occur when a Hobbit begins to talk to himself, or to those who cannot answer back.
Gadfry, you don't suppose that Frodo will evolve into a Republicant? More likely it is the Hobbit merely learning to turn the page, and to keep the feeders full. Open windows this time of year are narcotic.
