we are in transition

it’s a big day in our house. today is my husband steve’s 58th birthday. it also the last day of the tax-filing extension deadline, which means his tax prep obligations are mostly done now until they start up again in january. and, perhaps most significantly, it is the day he turned in his 2nd pass of his manuscript–a memoir about our family’s deep immersion into rural languedoc, france–which will come out next year (as will mine).  when i said, yesterday, that deadlines were piling up. i meant it.

meanwhile, our fall colors got off to an early start and then seem to have stalled out. so there are an unusual number of leaves caught in transition like this one. which i love.

willow for the win

lots of deadlines piling up. thank goodness for the the generosity of weeping willows. they always come through.

weeping willow leaves in autumn

are you a late bloomer?

i know some late bloomers. my husband, for one. it used to frustrate me. now i see things differently. age does that. these knapweed flowers are late bloomers. one month ago, no one would have even noticed these weeds among the cacophony of roadside flowers. today, they were all i could see.

knapweed in mid-october

memento mori

i did not intend to make a model of my feelings today but it appears some part of me wanted to express the loss and confusion i have felt for some time about a world in chronic crisis, as highlighted by the no-one-wins, everybody-loses events of the last few days.

assorted animal skulls

in transition

this is a single maple tree branch. caught in transition. yesterday ¼ red, today ½ red, and tomorrow (most likely) all red. dailiness.

maple tree branch in autumn colors