Daily Archives: 2012/08/25

Holy Mass was offered just as the first glimmerings of hope that dawn might be breaking soon visited Holy Souls Hermitage.

However, right after Holy Mass, this ad orientem view was to be seen of this blue ridge mountain rain forest.

I looked closer outside, and, sure enough, there were mist clouds hugging Holy Souls Mountain, as usual. The humidity always hangs around 99%. The forest floor is almost always soaking wet, a mat of rotting pine needles and dead trees, even while that which is alive reaches to the heavens, still full of sap, still green.

Taking a closer look… yep! It’s a rain forest all right:

I’m guessing that there are some prayers going up for me, since I all of a sudden seem to have the gumption these days to do what I haven’t done for a very long time, which is to work on the hermitage. Perhaps it’s also a fear that this winter will be very long and very cold indeed. I took a gander at the plastic high up on one “wall” and tore it down, this being the result early this morning:

Not very weather-proof, you say? You would be right on that. So, after a bit of prestidigitation with hammer and saw, this was the result:

That will tend to keep the heat from the wood-stove inside just a bit more efficiently. The first winter in the breezy loft of the barn, and the second winter under unrolled tacked-up polyurethane, and now, the third winter coming up, what with some actual wind-breaking construction, all make and will make for unique experiences of the great outdoors such that, this winter, one might even be tempted to call it indoors!

Amidst a day of sunshine, then rain, then sun, then rain, etc., this was to be seen in the evening looking to the West of the hermitage:

And this was spotted while putting the chickens away for the night. Praise the Lord for all His creatures, great and small!

Did I mention I also saw two lynx together today, about 200 yards from the hermitage? Totally cool. I’m guessing that they are this years litter of the lynx I saw last year in almost the same place.

I write this post with a somewhat heavy heart. It seems that the security of the property on which the hermitage is situated might be a bit tenuous. More news on that coming up on 30 August, 2012. We shall see. A Hail Mary for that intention, please: Hail Mary…