It is nearly the 2/3 mark on the way from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox.

It is now dark when I get up at 5ish …this morning 4:50 a.m.

I love the change and although I enjoy the early summer light…to a point…I love when it starts back to being dark in the morning.

This morning, I was sitting in the sunroom with Auggie snuggled on my lap – I’d had my turmeric tea and was thinking about starting coffee as the early dawn light rose.

And then Auggie jumped up and I noticed why…a bat… *IN* the house. I grabbed Auggie as the bat was flitting about the sunroom, threw open the sunroom slider and shut the sunroom doors to the kitchen, which left the bat in the sunroom. The window opposite the slider was open – screened. But I forgot that the slider had the split screen.

With Auggie still in my arms, I ran outside and around to the outside of the slider and pulled down the split screen.

The bat left on the draft.

People try to somehow shoo bats out, but the easiest thing (per Google and my experience) is to open a window or door and an opposite window or door and the bat will immediately find its way out on the draft. It doesn’t want to be in the house any more than any person wants it in the house.

The mystery, though, is how it came in. In springtimes past, they have come down the woodstove chimney. But after 3 or 4 episodes, I finally put a reminder in my calendar to close the damper in late April – opening it only if I have a fire. I checked the stove and all was locked up. BUT…bats are like mice and can squeeze through very small openings so maybe it got in the chimney and found a way out…a mystery.

Continuing with Wednesday morning… I had a hair appointment in town at 9:00 a.m. and a few things I wanted from the grocery. Bear and I headed to town in the Jeep about 7:45 with my plan being a walk, the grocery, my hair appointment and then home and to work.

Adding to the “wild kingdom” theme, we saw a large healthy skunk about a mile down the road home. It crossed the road in plenty of time, but Bear saw it and raised the alarm which caused the skunk to raise its tail but no spritz and we continued still smelling our normal sweet smell.

And then…

A rainbow.

A bit faint, but nonetheless, a rainbow.

The sky to the west was dark and low.

The sun was rising above the mountains behind us – backlighting the valley.

And after watching and taking photos of the rainbow, I turned around…

…the rising sun sending rays through the cloud breaks: lighting the wheat and hay fields.

All of the colors of a rainbow: on the road home.