Blue November Sky

I lied to you.

I didn't mean to.

In all my memory
November has been
a gray month.

Cold
and dreary.

What can I say
when this November
sports such blue skies?

I was wrong.

Not only bright,
but warm!

Seventy degrees today!

The scooters
wait outside
for kids
to come home from school.

Charley
is out
fishing.

I see Nancy
out cutting
her honeysuckle.


I have an idea, Nancy.

Instead of just cutting,
let's plant something.

I could see
filling this understory
with dogwoods and
redbuds.

Sargent road
could explode
with pinks and whites
in the spring.

And in the fall
instead of those
empty calories
of honeysuckle berries...

...our migrating songbirds
could feast
on the nutritious
berries of the dogwoods.

We still have fall color
here this November.

I can't remember
when the red maples
have lasted this long.

The gingko tree
lost all his leaves
in one quick whoosh
on Saturday.


It's not all good
I warn you.

This warm weather
we enjoy
disrupts
the natural order
of things.

Birds fly south
before the berries
have ripened to feed them.

Hungry birds
collapse on migration.

Insects proliferate
and eat bark
that should feed the bears.

Hungry bears
starve in the winter.

Much as I enjoy
my bike ride in November

I know
it's dangerous to mess
with Mother Nature.

I try not to think about it
as I bike blithely
down to Fort Ben.

I see
more fishermen...

A lovely walkway
over the wetland...

Picnickers
in t-shirts.

No jackets needed today!

She asks about my RAIN jersey.

I think how ironic
to wear this
since it doesn't rain
in Indiana anymore.

I take my own picnic
at the Sycamore shelter.


I lose track of time.

Luckily Ripley reminds me
I need to go
pick up Mom
from dialysis.

We speed back
past Falling Tree Way...

...past Sunnyside school
(sunnier than last time)...

...past houses baking in the sun.

I think of my solar tour.

They could cut air conditioning in half
by putting awnings
over these big south windows.

Maybe I should tell them.

I swerve to miss
a woolly-bear
in the road.

I hear the woolly bears
are predicting
a mild winter, too.

Spin into
Spyglass Hills...

I have to pause and smile
to see the sidewalk chalk
waiting for school to get out.

I get home
to a clean garage...

(thanks to my recent
photo assignment)

And off to dialysis
just in time to get Mom
and take her home...



...on this beautiful blue
November day.