Stragglers

As with every fellowship, this one, too, must disperse.

Taking out the mail

Fort at night

Whipping cream

Birthday girl

Stories

Quite pleased

Isaiah briefs Aunt Lisa on Anna Friedrichs' wedding plans…and his own geographic reflections.

"The wedding will be at Grandma and Grandpa's church, and the reception will be in Seneca.  Of course, I would prefer Beatrice because there are more trucks there.  And"--placing his hands on his cheeks--"New York is just crowded!"

Breakfast!

Kateri Reads: The Musical

Kateri reads

Isaiah steps into his uncle's super shoes

Quotable

"My name is not Bernadette. Isaiah called me a sorceress and then he changed me into a dinosaur."

Anonymous?

Sunday stroll

"I am the pussycat and Kateri is the owl."

Leaves

Notes

Two nights of cold. Ice in the chicken waterer. Cutting firewood. Burning it in the fireplace.

Frequent drives with sleeping kids: Rutted roads, sagging limestone, rusted bridges, abandoned farmhouses. The sale barn has a steel plate 6 feet tall, 15 feet wide painted red, worn in spots by the passing cattle, splattered with brown; it could hang in MOMA  (the catalog might mention Rothko and Ofili and Pollock and found art). Observing light that painters try to capture, some of it cast upon the new windmills to the west.

I suspect the fashion designer who went in for all those browns in the 1960s/70s was a Midwesterner transplanted to New York with a vision of capturing the glorious subtlety of fall out here, only to be devastated by how muddy it all became when rendered in polyester.

The landscape is more industrial than when I was a kid. New, giant machine sheds. More lights. Bigger equipment. Of course, it was industrial then, too, mechanically turned soil, highly manipulated genetics, a grid of roads.

First cider is drinkable.

There's a big world out there

Desultory car faces

Driving

Morning quest

"Where to now?" I say to the young knight.
"This way," he says decisively and wades into the tall grass, shield held high with his right hand, sword clasped in his left. There are dragons, angry squirrels, T-rexes, sea serpents and wolves to slay.