I'll Sing You This November Song

November is my favorite month: scruffy, five o'clock-shadowy, open-skied and wind-blasted,. No one apostrophises it (--or do they? Has anyone?--there is a poetic research project for you, Margaret), but O! November, you are the best month for walking and crow watching! Here, Wingy's feral cousin emerges from the shade of the butterfly bushes.
--and what must be absolutely the last rose--a windblown Buff Beauty.

November lettuce--tucked in at night with old bedsheets against the frost.
a close-up of Florina--still green. Apple leaves do not behave like pear leaves, which turn chocolate-color and curl into little cylinders--botanical Madeleines. I used to love that, in Michigan. maybe it is too warm here...
This is a Monticello snowberry bush. In the summer, it has pastel golden-green leaves and looks fey, astral and out-of-place; so much more arresting in November, after frost has banished its leaves and tarnished its stems.

"A Toy Never Played With Is Not a Toy at All"

Drew built Sumo a cat tree.







Even Stan likes it.

Everything is Sumo....

Now if only he could grade papers!






The eternally moving "object of view" at Club 13 these days. A few recent highlights: Sumo "in the hood..." Yes, he loves being up in the air, whether riding in my down hoodie, or on Drew's shoulder, or just being babied. Note also moments of near detente w/Stan...

SUMO

New little wild Siamese Sumo relaxes at home with his best friend and soulmate Wingy. Check out the stripey points and crazed stare.

Mt. Washington Redux: July 4th, 2008

Unlike our previous visit (wind gusts to 50 mph, visibility 35 ft.), this was a flawlessly clear day--a view of five states, and an unnerving view, too, of just how high up we were riding...



Like all intrepid tourists, we cannot resist being photographed at the summit: "I claim this mountaintop!"










At the top of the mountain: the Weather Observatory, the famous and picturesque train (Drew talking to engineer) and Marty, the Observatory cat!


Here Drew prepares the bike for the brake-punishing trip back down the mountain.