how to describe a starry night

Cazin, Solitude, 1889

There's a famous paragraph in one of Chekov's letters to his brother Nikolai in which he talks about writing description. In it he says, 'When describing a starry night, don't just talk about the beauty of the heavens, and the beautiful pinpricks of stars all over the inky sky.' He says, 'describe a piece of broken glass and the moonlight shining in that, and all of a sudden a wolf runs past you like a black ball in the night.'

--from an interview with Tobias Wolff

fascinated

I keep thinking I should have something more to say about these, but I really don't seem to... 

...nope, still don't so, you know, just some feathers.  Well, I could say that if the birds to which they once belonged came to any harm, it was prior to my finding them.  That is -- no birds were harmed in the actual production of these pictures.

sunday brunch

Take an old friend, or maybe a good book...

...that's the most difficult decision to make.  Really, no menu -- no decisions.  How great to just sit, chat, and wait for whatever it is that Vince is bringing to the table.  Today it was paw paw pancakes, frittata with fresh, local (as in growing overhead) vegetables and steaming hot french-press java. WOW, and what a day for the patio!

Thanks Jerah!

R.I.P. "elephant beech"

Some of the trails I wander regularly have been inaccessible since the wind-storm so it wasn't until today that I was sorry to learn one of my favorite trees didn't make it through. Some portraits from the archive:

field notes

As I write this the wind is rushing in herds of turbulent clouds that can't quite commit to rain and I am glad (always) that I spent the afternoon between clouds -- walking through woods and lingering at the edges of fields -- resting for a moment on the crest of the sweet decline.  So much light.  Happy Fall! 

an ocean and a rock

collecting

Picked up on the way:  seed pods from our used to be flower beds now turned jungle, feathers from three good runs (a good handful more than pictured here -- maybe later in better light than my very sepia "dining-room-after-dark" lighting), and more spore prints from fungi grabbed out of the mulch on my way back from parking lot duty yesterday (so excited to look at them this morning).