A cacophony and a bad smell

I lied. I am writing one last blog on my lunch hour before I take off. I can't help myself.

I had to share a few sounds and smells before I take off for the retreat.

Yesterday upon arriving at Pegs, my therapist, I got out of the car and stopped for a moment to take in the beautiful early autumn day before I went in. Her office is in her house which is a lovely old 1800's home decorated with fabulous art and objects, and is in the Catskills. It is a heavenly place to heal one's soul, in addition to the woman who has been an integral part of my journey.

Suddenly I hear a sound that I could not identify. It sounded like birds, but not just a few random tweets, it was a constant screech of strange sounds, almost like the sound of heavy high pitched squeaky machinery. I could not figure it out. It was an unworldly sound.

I got Peg and asked her to come outside.

She listened for a bit and said: "oh, it is the blackbirds migrating. There are hundreds and hundreds of them in the woods, sort of like Alfred Hitchcock's classic movie The Birds." I was amazed and a little creeped out by it.

Then I went home and opened the back door. A horrid odor seeped into my nose. I had smelled it before once or twice this summer, but not like this. Larry had tracked in some kind of animal feces the other day, and he thought it was dog shit, and had cleaned it up really well. I walked outside. It smelled outside too.

It smells like something dead, or what I imagine to be wild animal poo. If the woodchucks did make a home under my porch, am I smelling their latrine? Or did a mother of a woodchuck DIE UNDER MY PORCH? I have asked Larry to check it out as it is rank and I cannot stand bad smells. I obsess about them and they cling to my nose hairs like dew on a spider web.

I hope when he has a few days without me, that he does some investigating, so at least I know what it is. I know it is not a dead mouse in the house, as the cats would have made fast work of anything inside. (Larry if you read this, it is a hint!)

Patti O Monster

PS another image done following a Photoshop tutorial
So I leave you with images fit for the season of fall and the cycle of life, and of things that stink and scream and go bump in the night.