We had no rain in October. It was a quiet month here, good writing weather and working outside weather. We got down to Sally Branch several times with friends. And Rachel and Nigel came over to help us put in gutters for a rain catchment system in need of rain. We traveled to Cades Cove, had a picnic on the knoll we always go to off Hyatt. Then up to Cincy.
Back home for over a week now we’ve been sick, slow movers, ratioing the last few gallons of water in our cisterns. Then this morning a juvenile bald eagle came out of the mist from Sally Branch to light in the crown of the pine, the one that stands farthest from the cabin before the ridge drops sharp, west.
The eagle coming up, it’s wings too wide to be a hawk’s, marked the end of a night of rain. Over an inch, the flash-drought broken. First juvenile we’ve seen on the land, fortuitous after our new gutters hauled in 600 gallons — more than twice what I would’ve caught in buckets under the roofline. I’ve been catching rain in buckets, pouring the water into cisterns all year.
I wish I could’ve gotten a picture of that eagle twitching its head, but it stayed well-hidden inside its green leaf crown. Stayed with us long enough that we were able to pass binoculars back and forth and reset our focus. Then the eagle flew back into the mist wing wide. We said, wow — why do words always fail the extraordinary? — feeling lucky like we always do to live in this place.
Below are some pictures from our October.
