October Sweetness

Lord, it is time. The summer was very big. Lay thy shadow on the sundials, and on the meadows let the winds go loose. Command the last fruits that they shall be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them on to fulfillment and drive the last sweetness into the heavenly wine.

Rainer Maria Rilke

View from inside a small cave in Missouri at Meramec State Park

October

Old the year grows,

Casting aside her green cloak,

Twirling in lingering twilight -

Offering her final fruits.

Blustering winds bend her limbs,

Enervating darkness calls her to sleep-

Rocking her bones into winter deep.

Hundreds of white pelicans and cormorants traveling together in Oklahoma

A broken tree cradles the moon at Sequoyah State Park in Oklahoma

Wheat tips bending toward the sun in Texas

Ariadne, the banded garden spider, basking in the light of the rising sun in Azle, Texas

The hunter’s moon descends beneath the trees in Texas

Leaves and twig reflecting in a still pond in Pier Cove, Michigan

Milkweed letting go of her feathery offspring

Autumn Glory of Ox-Bow and lake Michigan beyond from the Crow’s Nest Trail in Saugatuck

A few feathers wave good-bye to the sun and October on the Lake Michigan Shore in Fennville

What I really want from Music: That it be cheerful and profound like an afternoon in October.

Friedrich Nietzsche

October is a month for classical music. For running into a gale force wind. For flying kites and watching scary movies and eating popcorn by the fire. It is one of my favorite months for the colors and the smells and the winds of change.

This October turned into a beautiful but busy month of travel and events and my intention of blogging twice turned into not even once; well as I write it’s still October, Halloween, in fact, but you won’t receive this until November 1st.

I hope your October was as amazing as mine. The unusually warm weather made it possible to be outdoors so much more than usual, and I got to visit my family in Texas which always makes me happy.

Thank you so much for being here! I will see you in two weeks. Really!! 😊

A Halloween treat for the squirrels - carved heirloom pumpkin

Of Monsters and Ghosts

A world in which there are monsters, and ghosts, and things that want to steal your heart is a world in which there are angels, and dreams and a world in which there is hope.

Neil Gaiman

Be hole, be dust, be dream, be wind

Be night, be dark, be wish, be mind,

Now slip, now slide, now move unseen,

Above, beneath, betwixt, between.

Neil Gaiman, from the Graveyard Book

Happy (almost) Halloween! I decided to do things a little differently this week - No poem from me; because I found this beautiful little verse by Neil Gaiman from the Graveyard Book (which is a fantastic book to read and/or listen to, by the way) which was just the right mood: a little fanciful, a little dark. Hope you enjoy it and the pictures.

10/14/2022 - Gravestone on the Front Lawn

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.

J. R. R. Tolkien

10/11/2022 - A silent walker on the sand

10/23/2022 - The Lady of The Tree - Arms outstretched

10/27/2022 Another Tree Creature - ensnared by a vine

October 21, 2022. I love all its phases, but I particularly love to see a bright crescent moon; because if you look closely, along the edges, where the darkness meets the light, craters are more visible than when the moon is full.

Unpredictable October

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

- E. B. White

October 10, 2022 - Reaching out to the Hunter’s Moon

in the dark before sunrise,

in the cool october morning,

the hunter's moon is lowering.

i try to catch it in my hand-

but it falls into the lake

as first light breaks

and the hunters’ rifles rise

Sunsets are earlier and dusk light is softer. The dried, wispy grass brushes the sky … sigh…

October 13, 2022 - Lake Michigan is roaring

In just a few days, the weather has turned cold, and the lake is roaring.

October 18, 2022 - Came home to a wild storm after a weekend away. Wind whistling. Trees creaking and bending. Lake Roaring. Terrifying and Exhilarating at the same time.

The power went out around 9 and I woke up at three a.m. worrying. Found a single leaf clinging to the front glass door. A sassafras leaf: like a three fingered hand pressed against the pane.

October 14, 2022 - The wild spread of leaves after the storm.

October 20, 2022 - Trees down and deer worried on the Pier Cove Trail.

October 20, 2022 - The colors of Pier Cove

In the aftermath of the storm, some things are so much more beautiful, like the trees and fallen leaves darkened by rainfall along the dark dirt road to the Pier Cove Ravine Trail. And here, away from the open air - the wind is a little quieter…

The moon is just a sliver now, and in a few days it will disappear completely, but today i got to see it early in the morning. I remembered why i love mornings outdoors. Darkness. Just me and the trees and the moon, and all the wild animals i can’t see.

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Rhoda Lewis

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