Noah and Claire got their first taste of snow for the season this morning before they left for home. It was snowing just a little bit–enough to squeeze a snowball together, to Claire’s distress.
Nothing like the first taste of winter.
You sure that you’ve got enough hats on, Noah?
Just one more minute of play before the hours of car riding, please.
Noah cooled his tongue, too.
I’ve got a secret for you…
It was this big!
Within this monument on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth lie unidentified bones of some of the Pilgrims. When the separatists left Holland and England for America, there were only about 2000 Europeans living on this continent. Dorothy Bradford sailed but would not make it this far–with the Mayflower moored at the initial landing site on Cape Cod, she either fell or jumped from the ship to her death. No one will ever know which.
Also on Cole’s Hill, a monument erected by the Town of Plymouth on behalf of the United American Indians of New England, commemorating a National Day of Mourning. The National Day of Mourning is observed each Thanksgiving Day. Something to think about when we share our abundance.
Paula asked for some fall foliage from this year. I didn’t get out to take photos specifically–partly because I am seldom satisfied with the outcome, partly because I wanted to enjoy them for what they were at the moment. Nonprofessional photos seldom take in the scope of these hardwood forests. The color saturation is so complete–if fills your soul, makes you want to weep. So all I got was a few drivebys. The first and third photos were taken on Cape Cod on the day before Columbus Day, and the middle photo is near the Massachusetts/New York border, just west of the Berkshires, on Columbus Day. This year we had very brilliant reds, the best I’ve ever seen. Fall in New England is everything it’s cracked up to be. And that thing I said about winter being a long distant memory for us–forget that. It’s 17 degrees outside right now, with a 30 mph wind.
You’ve come a long way, Bones. Congratulations on your passing the California Bar! Great Grandma Floyd would be so proud.
I just noticed that Grand Targhee has already had 63″ of snow this year. The long winter has almost begun–Mother has moved indoors to walk in the morning. She has a key to the church and she and Dad walk around and around the cultural hall. She told me he’s keeping up to her, lap by lap. Church or no church, what a miracle that is.
Driggs winters can be unmercifully long and cold. It was exceptionally cold the night we got married, in the very church Mom and Dad take their exercise. Forty-two degrees below zero. I can’t believe we had guests there.
It’s 68 degrees, raining, with a tornado watch this evening in New York. Winter seems long ago and far away.
Just like tempered steel in a bridge, a tempered passion is stronger than one that is raw. Let’s all just take a breath now…
Nicholas and Ginny (and sometimes Craig) had a jam session Nov. 1st. It started in the living room and eventually moved into the dining room of Ginny’s house. I don’t know who had more fun, Ginny, Nicholas, or me. Nothing like opposite-coast siblings making the effort to get together and make great music together. Hope it happens as often as it can.
Nick, Craig, and Noah climbed the contraption on the Longfellow Elementary schoolyard in Portland, Maine on Saturday. A good time was had by all.
January 28, 2008, American University:
“…I believe there is one candidate who has extraordinary gifts of leadership and character, matched to the extraordinary demands of this moment in history. He understands what Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the “fierce urgency of now”…He will be a president who refuses to be trapped in the patterns of the past. He is a leader who sees the world clearly without being cynical. He is a fighter who cares passionately about the causes he believes in, without demonizing those who hold a different view. He is tough-minded, but he also has an uncommon capacity to appeal to “the better angels of our nature.” –Senator Ted Kennedy, endorsing Barack Obama.
(Flag photo from JFK Presidential Library, Oct. 31, 2008)
Go Vote. Obama.