dear november

you’re so pretty. i love how understated and you are. how harmonious your earthy colors are. i love the combination of gray and russet especially. i love your low solar angles and your crystalline clear light. i love your gray skies. and long views into the woods unhindered by leaves. i love the sounds of leaves crunching under my boots. and the smell of moist duff after the morning frost melts.  you’re so pretty, and you don’t even know it. i love you.

xo, mary jo

sad Mac

already with the winter stems?  no, i am jumping the seasonal gun a bit because i had to keep it simple today. that operating system problem i had a couple days wasn’t a temporary glitch–turns out my seven year old iMac kicked the bucket last night. so, i spent this splendid fall day migrating to a new computer, and i am only partially done. remember “sad mac” from Sex in the City?  well, that frowny mac face pretty much sums up my day. i am very much hoping your’s was better than mine, and you got outside to enjoy the beauty of low solar angles through brightly hues leaves.

allium stems

willow of eucalyptus?

i am struck by how very similar these californian eucalyptus leaves are to my northern willow leaves i posted yesterday–not just in color, but in size and shape too. the human brain loves pattern match and make connections. so this little discovery gave me a fun little dopamine hit that lasted for several minutes.

i am reading a book called The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul. some of you may be interested in it. here’s a quote i read this morning: “[It has been] established that nature is indeed a highly reliable and effective “drug,” bioengineered by evolution over thousands of years. It appears to affect us all in the same fashion: within twenty to sixty seconds of exposure to nature, our heart rate slows, our blood pressure drops, our breathing becomes more regular, and our brain activity becomes more relaxed. ”

let’s all get outside today for a good dose of vitamin N.

eucalyptus leaves

 leaves it is after 9+ years of still, i know how seductive fall leave are. but i have also trained myself to look past their attention-getting showiness. but this year…well…i am giving in to what is…convenient. my mom, 85 years old, is having cardiac issues (in and out of a-fib) and i am her primary. so. fall leaves it is. looking “past” fall leaves takes more concentration than i have access to right now. lucky for you fall leaves is a pretty good consolation prize. willow leaves in fall

fall 2021

i know. i know. i keep saying. it’s a strange autumn. and i am loving all these soft and muted colors–they are almost spring-like.

maple leaves in october