I awoke this morning before dawn to film sunrise and found a sweet gift of Virgilios sauce and amazingly fat rigatonis in the basket on my front porch. I am recovering from a leg operation and my friend Catherine Ryan called at the very moment that I was trying my personal recovery technique–on the floor doing a shoulder stand, with phone in hand–and she really got an earful. Thank you Catherine for listening to me complain about itchy leg braces and hospitals. I gave her the wrong impression though because I can walk and work–I just cannot sit or stand in one place for very long.

After putting the sauce and pasta in the cupboard I left to go film, and once again, the exquisite Great Blue Heron was there at Good Harbor Beach fishing amongst the reeds. For the third morning in a row I have observed a flock of cormorants leaving Salt Island en masse to fish with the gulls in the outgoing surf along the shoreline. I wonder, do they sleep there every night?

Next stop was to a friend’s home on Rocky Neck to drop off peaches from my garden. The light was hitting the Sailor’s Stan’s sunflowers perfectly and I just had to stop and take several snapshots.

By now it’s after 8:00 and I almost always go to yoga on Saturday mornings but because of the stitches, thought better of it and instead went to measure a new border at the Gloucester HarborWalk.

Blooming today at the HarborWalk are asters, goldenrod, annual rudbeckia, and salvia.

Next stop was the farm stand and then on to Pick Your Own at Long Hill in Beverly. In case any pollinators stop by, I prefer to leave my own zinnias growing in the garden and just love the array of colors in the Long Hill garden mix.

All this gorgeousness before 10:00 and I still have a work day if front of me, but it’s been a September Saturday morning I won’t soon forget! For all these gifts, of friendship and of the beauty that surrounds, I am counting my blessings.