Reflections During the Season of Falling Leaves

Some of the days in November

carry the whole memory of summer

as a fire opal carries the color of moonrise.

These are the days I especially love,

when the air lies soft and quiet

over the dreaming earth;

It is a reflective and thoughtful time.

     -Gladys Taber, "November"

                                    Stillmeadow Daybook

Morning Dove Feather with Rusty Blackhaw Leaves

Leaf from "Appalachian Spring" Dogwood 

Cardinal Feather

Northern Oak Leaves turning yellow, then orange, then brown.

About half of the brown leaves will cling to the tree throughout the winter,

then drop to the ground in early spring of the next year.

Worn out Dove or Mocking Bird Feather

Vic removing Sweetbay Magnolia.

I saw one growing as a multi-stemmed small size twenty foot tree

in a botanical garden thirty years ago and bought one to plant.  It struggled, and I moved it every few years until it was finally happy.    

Mine grew as a single trunk shooting upward into the white ash tree canopy, 

and competing with it for air space.

A hard decision finally deciding to remove it.

Looking from center back yard towards the patio.

Fothergilla gardenii with leaves beginning to turn yellow, 

then orange, then red.

A few fall blooms from Corky Daylily

Type of crane fly

I love clear wings outlined...almost like clear leaded glass pieces.

A company of Trooping Crumble Cap mushrooms

briefly making their appearance after rain storm.

Leaf-footed Bug taking a drink at the ground level cast stone bird bath

Goulimyi fall crocus with swamp sunflower

Hover Fly

A cold week of bleak speculations has left me eager for my appointment next Tuesday with an ear and nose specialist.  For over two months I’ve suffered from out of the blue occurrences of ears plugging up in seconds and losing my sense of balance for a period of time.  This has always happened while in the house, and it is a struggle to make it to my bed and crash out until my head quits ringing and my ears pop.

The last time, I jammed my thumb into the hall wall as I tried to steady myself long enough to make it to my bed banging my head against the wall in the process.  I woke up four hours later with a bloody thumb from the nail cracking into the quick.  I’m pretty sure I passed out when I reached my bed, because I remember nothing else happening before I woke up.

Today I began not feeling well late in the morning and laid down in case my ears plugging up would happen next.  I grabbed the lip balm next to my bed to moisten my lips and woke up four hours later with the lip balm still clutched in my fingers and my lips quite dry.

It has been a bit scary, and I have such a fear of this happening while driving or outside in my garden, that I rarely do anything by myself.  It’s a bitch, all this fear and dread.

I have nothing positive to write about.  It will maybe freeze tonight, and my dog Dustin’s kidney values have gotten a little bit worse.  These photos I took mostly the last weeks of October when my dizzy spells stopped for a brief period.  Most I deleted as crap, but these are okay.

People like to think of November and winter as dismal and dreary, but there is good in any month of the year, if one sets their sights on finding it.  May you find your late fall full of warm cozy moments amidst the chill of frosty morns and frozen sunshiny afternoons.  

I’m planting fall bulbs of Dutchman's Breeches, Byzantine Gladiolus, Turk's Cap Lily, General de wet and Clusiana tulips.  Oh, how I hate planting bulbs in the windy freezing weather, but I'm crazy enough to do it anyway!  How about you?

Listen...

With faint dry sound,

Like steps of passing ghosts,

The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees

And fall.

Lacey...chillin' out

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