On Saturday the first falling leaves spiraled down on a light breeze. My grandsons ran across the back yard trying to catch the yellow ones with butterfly nets. They did get a few, let them go and tried for more until they spotted a few last butterflies and took off after them. They never did manage to catch a butterfly. Instead moved on to trying to kick a ball over the roof, or hit a post, or run faster than the dog. They are tired out before dusk and their sleep is sound a

Woke to a dense fog this morning. Winter disappearing. There is no snow left on the ground. The freeze on the pond has become mist, all but the thinnest layer. The air hanging thickly above the yard is full of what was cold and white. It is a very different fog then the one that rolled in from the sea when we lived in San Francisco. There, so near the ocean, it billowed in morning and evening. Engulfing one street at a time. Some days there would be a fog so thick in the fron

Wishing Time Away. #place #poetry #time #Writing

The light belies the cold. Even with six inches of snow on the ground, even with temperatures barely rising above 20 F there is no doubt that we are moving toward Spring. Inexorably moving forward, constantly turning the present into the past. I hear people wishing time away all around me; wanting winter to be gone, wanting the day to be over, wanting it to be the weekend already. I usually don’t say anything but I am thinking be careful, don’t push away this day, this week,

I do pay attention; the changing color of the leaves, which happens all through the year from their tender openings in spring through the fuller greens of early summer to the very first turnings long before fall has actually begun. I just cannot tell which leaf belongs to which tree by name. The same with bird songs, I listen, I hear the different rhythms and melodies, the pitch and tone but I cannot categorize past the most basic groupings, It seems the patience for learning