we minnesotans talk about the weather because it is the most dramatic thing about our landscape. we don’t have oceans or gorges or mountains or the big sky of the western plains and southwestern deserts. we have lakes, which are pretty and placid but which are not, with the exception of lake superior, dramatic. we are, however, on the 45th parallel in the middle of our continent and we can have 130 degree temperature swings between high summer and low winter. all of which helps explain our weather obsession, and the reason  behind this photo, which stands as a marker of the day when a brief, gorgeous period of equilibrium between warm green summer and colorful fall tipped irreversibly in the direction of the latter. a chilly day blew down most of the remaining leaves today, and in 24 hours it went from color-on-color october to gray-on-brown november in my back yard.

a collection of late october finds: crabapples, nest, turkey feather, bracket fungus, pinecone, birdseye knot, dried leaves and weeds

shoreview, minnesota

between my husband and me, i believe we read the book “the very hungry caterpiller” to our two kids between 367,594 times and 367, 632 times. that is why i know the book begins with the words, “in the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf.” if you read my instagram today, you will understand that the egg was lying on a leaf, and had probably lain on the leaf since its mother had laid it, and left it lying there, laid bare for birds lying in wait to lay claim to both the lying egg and its laying mother.

beetle eaten leaves on an unidentified vine

grass lake regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

i got back from the grocery store this afternoon, and for some reason, today was the day i reached a saturation point with gargantuan blemish-free grocery store fruit. let me start by acknowledging what a first-world problem this is. but we bought a bag of petite and delicious pears at a natural foods store about a week ago, and they served as perfect, pointedly sweet snacks and lunch box treats all week long. then today i found myself in our local traditional grocery store produce section, and i saw grapes the size of plums and pears the size of dinner bells and honeycrisp apples the size of grapefruits and grapefruits the size of melons, and melons the size of toyotas. i couldn’t do it. it all looked just a little bit frankensteinian and unappetizing. then on an afternoon walk, i passed a forgotten crabapple tree along an obscure side trail, and its correctly sized, perfectly imperfect fruit made my mouth water and my heart skip a beat.

crab apples in october

grass lake regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

everything is in motion right now. eva took the ACT today, which is step one toward leaving home in a couple of years. all the leaves are falling. my husband just realized that his book is going to take another year-plus, instead of another 2 months. that means i will have to spend this winter not finding him agents, but actually deciding what what to do next with my life. it was going to be way easier to find steve an agent.

beech leaves in october

rice creek regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

my husband just finished a two day writing seminar. he came back after day one to describe an ice breaking exercise, during which all the people in class were forced to say one interesting thing about themselves. in a group made up of 50 or so very typical and mostly nondescript upper midwesterners, steve came home confirmed in his recent conviction that “everyone is interesting. everyone.” on a related topic, i found these leaves on a lowly little nondescript weed in an unremarkable trail-side thicket. they left me wanting to know more.

lowly weed leaves in late october

sucker lake regional trail, saint paul, minnesota