Thursday, July 28, 2011

Odds and ends

Fall’s apples aren’t ripe yet, but they are already large and heavy on the trees. It won’t be long before the first of the season are on my table.

I haven’t had much luck this week taking photos in the forest on Roundtop. Everything looks the same to me—lots of very dense greenery and the occasional vertical browns of the tree trunks. I need a few of those leaves to fall or thin out to open up the space a bit, both to let in more light and also to reveal the rest of the landscape. The local birds aren’t cooperating either this week. They are all skittish and the strong light makes silhouettes even of the bright bluebirds. So for the moment, I am taking my morning photos as I’m heading down off the mountain.

Some of my difficulty is due to the ever-shortening days. Early mornings in a deep forest are already much darker than they were a month ago. For a few moments on this cloudy morning, I thought about taking my headlamp when I walked the dogs. I didn’t have to do that today, though I will have to pretty soon, at least until I get out onto the lane where the sky is visible.

Wouldn’t you think after all the years I have lived that the date when I have to start using a headlamp in the mornings would be ingrained in my memory? I can remember Christmas and New Year’s, birthdays and anniversaries. Why can’t I remember when I need to start wearing the headlamp? I’m always surprised at how much I forget from year to year. Of course, that does make every year a new one, in many ways, which isn’t a bad thing at all. But I still think I should remember the date when I’ll need that headlamp.

2 comments:

Scott said...

I just got back from central Idaho. I was on the western edge of the Mountain Time Zone (in fact, northern Idaho is in the Pacific Time Zone), and the sky didn't get really dark until almost 10:30 p.m. I wanted to enjoy the stars far from city lights, so I made a point of staying up rather late, but I had to get up relatively early each morning and didn't want to stay up until 11 or 11:30 each night.

Cicero Sings said...

It is amazing how much we get from year to year. One thing about blogging, one can go back and look. My current wonder - when to dig the garlic.

I've sold the condo and am in the throws of moving stuff up from the coast. Hopefully by next weekend I will be finished. It is a 5 1/2 hour drive one way! Too busy to wrote these days