Turning over other leaves

Local birds have noticed the persistent wind and drop in temperatures. Visits to the feeders have increased by about an order of magnitude. Visits to the birdbath, mostly for drinking, will be more productive and easier now that we've cleaned the ice and leaves out, plugged in the heater, and refilled it. From what we've been watching the past few days, black-capped chickadees and goldfinches must have had awesome breeding success this past warm season. They're stacked up waiting for an opening at a feeder they way planes get stacked up at busy times at busy airports such as Chicago's O'Hare.

oak leaves often hang on all winter

Photo by J. Harrington

We're still, and on a year to year basis, once again, trying to figure out why and how it is that a West wind can and will blow many more leaves onto the driveway than it blows off of that same drive. We've cleared the drive of leaves twice already this season, so we know it's not just our imagination. Once again the drive needs clearing before the snow arrives and wet leaves get an opportunity to clog the snow blower. It just seems kind of pointless to clear that drive again until we get a couple of days forecast to be more calm than howling. Less than half of the oak leaves are on the ground, although the local maples are mostly bare. Leaf drop that occurs for almost half the year is one of the things we like least about oaks.

Next week is the last for our autumn Community Supported Agriculture [CSA] share. Our winter CSA, at a different farm, starts that same week in October. The Better Half also found a reasonably close source of pasture-raised beef. We are weaning ourselves off of CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) meat slowly but surely. The autumn 2020 issue of Orion magazine has a number of interesting and different perspectives on food, people and nature, of which we've only read a couple so far. Also, as a relatively long-time artisan sourdough baker, with our own "made from scratch" starter, we're also looking forward to reading Yes magazine's recent article The Radical Power of Your Sourdough Starter.

happy, home-made sourdough starter

Photo by J. Harrington

With luck and gods' grace, we'll get through the Winter of Our (COVID-19) Discontent aided and abetted by local foods, fresh bread, the joy-full activity  of birds, squirrels and who knows who else, good books, coffee and company and a Blue Tsunami to wash the place clean over the next couple of months.

Autumn Leaves

Marilyn Chin

The dead piled up, thick, fragrant, on the fire escape.
My mother ordered me again, and again, to sweep it clean.
All that blooms must fall. I learned this not from the Dao,
   but from high school biology.

Oh, the contradictions of having a broom and not a dustpan!
I swept the leaves down, down through the iron grille
and let the dead rain over the Wong family’s patio.

And it was Achilles Wong who completed the task.
   We called her:
The one-who-cleared-away-another-family’s-autumn.
She blossomed, tall, benevolent, notwithstanding.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.