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

October 11, 2022 - Dusk

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 17, 2022 - storm blown leaf

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…

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October 20, 2022- Morning Moon

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.

A second Look at Squirrels

Small birds throw seeds out of the feeder; large birds pick them up off the ground, but the squirrels try to muscle in. - Lilian Jackson Braun

10/05/2022 - Long stretch to the suet

We battle over

bird seed and suet.

you climb

the skinny pole,

slippery with grease

and

holding on with hind feet -

stretch your whole body

to grasp a bite,

while i sit

in my warm house

watching,

waiting to run you off.

10/05/2022 - Squirrel Eyeing me cautiously while climbing to the bird feeder

Do you wonder

out there in the cold-

why I would

tempt you

with sweet morsels

10/05/2022 Black Squirrel on Red Feeder (looking fearful)

then come out yelling

and waving my arms

when you eat them?

October 7, 2022

scurry and dray

small and light

they float

over the earth

arcing their bodies

curling their tails

float.

arc.

curl.

a soft rustle

of leaves

a pause.

float.

arc.

curl.

a leap.

float.

into (or

out of)

the trees

always.

to scurry

or

dray.

(A group of squirrels is either called a scurry or a dray - but scurry is how they move, and dray is what their nests are called…)

October 2 - October 7, 2022 - I found a pile of acorns on the beach before sunset on Sunday night - and had the bright idea to make a squirrel shape in the sand with them… I always think of squirrels when I see acorns … I thought it would be fun to take a picture of it every day - to see the decline…as it happened; the whole thing stayed intact for days. Until a storm came and it disappeared. My footprints are where it should have been in the last picture. It’s the nature of ephemeral creations - you can’t predict their endings.

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Consider the Fallen Leaf

How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days. - John Burroughs

October 3, 2022 - A fallen maple leaf in the evening sun

Consider the Fallen Leaf

i saw the leaf before me

full of holes,

curling in upon itself

turning brown

fragile

disintegrating

i saw its veins

darkened by sunlight -

its stem caught

in the crack of a stair

i saw its long shadow

stretching

curling in upon itself

full of holes

i saw the leaf before me

October 3, 2022 - Gathered Leaves and needles from Pier Cove Ravine Trail

October 3, 2022 - Gathering leaves on the trail today, I realized I didn’t really know much about leaves. What do they do for the tree, why do they change colors this time of year, why do they fall off, or if they don’t fall off, why not? Here’s what I learned:

Leaves use water, air and sunlight along with the chlorophyll they already contain to make food (sugar - sucrose) (for the tree. In the fall, when light changes, the chlorophyll starts to break down and whatever color is left in the leaf; depending on its particular chemistry is the color you see. The leaves help the tree grow as long as there is sunlight and available water; but in the winter, when there is less sunlight, and the hard ground makes it difficult for the tree to absorb water, the leaves need to fall off in order for the tree to conserve water. The reason evergreens don’t lose all of their leaves is that their needles or leaves are coated and don’t cause the tree to lose water, so they don’t need to be shed. In warm climates, some trees that are not traditionally considered evergreen also don’t lose their leaves; because they have more available sunlight, and the ground doesn’t freeze. Once leaves fall, of course, they still feed and protect the tree by covering the ground and then breaking down into compost. Birth life - death - rebirth - over and over again every year. It’s amazing.

October 4, 2022 - Fall. Falling. Fallen.

October 4, 2022. We’ve experienced a bluff collapse on Lake Michigan the past few years… it makes for striking images on the beach. The land slid down, trees slid down with it, some falling and dying, some managing to survive in a new location. They are all here; the fallen, the falling and the living - going through fall transition.

October 4, 2022. Sentinels

October 4, 2022. I saw a group of red pines standing next to a house on my run Tuesday night. Evergreens. Tall and regal. Soldiers standing at attention.