True colors will out

It's no longer necessary to look for the color in the local woodlots. There's now enough of it (approaching 25%) that it's obvious, especially in the maples. They've burst into orange and scarlet flames. Oaks are still a bit shy and bashful, but then many of them keep themselves partially covered throughout the Winter. As we write this, it occurs to us that, as much as the colors have developed over the past few days, today's blue skies and sunshine are highlighting what colors there are. We may offer this complaint most or many Autumns, but this one has been really dreary and the forecast is for more of the same.

glad we took this before the township paved the road

Photo by J. Harrington

Today, as we were returning from some local errands, driving on the Northern road through our local section of Carlos Avery WMA, we saw a bird that mad us smile: a ruffed grouse. S/he flew across the road in front of us. It's only the second grouse we've seen in the twenty-five or so years we've lived here. Maybe, hopefully, it's a sign of better days ahead?

North Woods ruffed grouse near BWCA country

Photo by J. Harrington

Last night's storms, plus the winds between those storms and the following cold front, brought a bunch of smaller branches down all over the drive. Living in a scenic, rustic setting is not without trials, tribulations, and irritations. When we've finished writing and posting today's blog entry, we're headed for the drive to do some cleanup. It's already snowing in other parts of Minnesota and we'd rather pick sticks up off the drive than out of the impeller in the snow blower.

For better, or worse, our reading continues to lean away from beach fluff. One of our errands today was an effort to pick up a copy of Rebecca Solnit's latest: Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises. It wasn't yet on the shelves at Scout & Morgan, but another book we've been looking for, off and on, for several months, was. We're returning to our college days mode and (re?)reading Albert Camus' Resistance, Rebellion, and Death. Existentialism was rather popular when we were in college. We suspect today's political, social and cultural climate may be comparably hospitable among the 99% of us who aren't in the 1% at the top. We think it will be interesting, and maybe enlightening, to read Solnit shortly after Camus. You may well get to share some of our thoughts on that experience right here. Bet you can't wait, right?

A MARK OF RESISTANCE

by Adrienne Rich

Stone by stone I pile
this cairn of my intention
with the noon's weight on my back,
exposed and vulnerable
across the slanting fields
which I love but cannot save
from floods that are to come;
can only fasten down
with this work of my hands,
these painfully assembled
stones, in the shape of nothing
that has ever existed before.
A pile of stones: an assertion
that this piece of country matters
for large and simple reasons.
A mark of resistance, a sign.

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