Colors so much warmer than the air. Halfway through the morning, the sky clears. Sun in the treetops. A phoebe calls.
October 2022
10/14/2022
A hair above freezing. A pair of jays fresh from their ablutions ascend a flaming birch, gleaning insects on their way to the oaks.
10/13/2022
Rain tapering off by mid morning. The sun even emerges for one or two seconds, setting off a crow.
10/12/2022
Slightly warmer. Alarmed chipmunks go in and out of sync. The slow hegemony of clouds.
10/11/2022
Sun in the treetops and a small flock of migrants just below, catching some breakfast. A chipmunk’s motor slowly runs out of putts.
10/10/2022
Sunrise has been delayed by clouds, but I hold out hope. A wren tuts impatiently. A train horn blows a flat minor chord.
10/9/2022
One degree above freezing at sunrise. A breeze reshuffles the walnut leaves on the porch. I find small patches of frost up by the barn.
10/8/2022
Cold, clear, and quiet. The wind has almost died. Through yellow leaves, just a bit more sky.
10/7/2022
Dawn. I watch the stars fade then brighten again, as a thin veil of cloud I hadn’t noticed moves off like a lizard’s third eyelid.
10/6/2022
Another woods-edge maple has gone red. Bouncing bet still blooms beside the porch, four months on.
10/4/2022
How can it be so yellow out and yet so cold? But the winter birds sound happy: chickadees, nuthatches, a red-bellied woodpecker.
10/2/2022
Light rain seasoning the breeze. A squirrel perched on a swaying limb chisels open a walnut—that haunted-house sound.
10/1/2022
A mid-morning break in the rain. The sun almost comes out. From up in the woods, the shrill panic of a squirrel just missed by a hawk.