disappearances

Cloudy & cooler. Closing the windows in the house, and putting on warmer clothing in the evening. Great Blue Heron cruising the Ira creek. Fox calling its pups in the woods in the back.
As opposed to the spring when changes often take the form of appearances. Fall is a time of disappearances. The deer flies have pestered me all summer long when walking over to production. I noticed the other day that they are gone.

wood time

It's hard to put into words the feeling of cutting up wood for winter heat. It's hard work, but it's satisfying. You are out in the fresh air, and putting some of your assets to good use. You're saving yourself a pretty good chunk of money, but it's more than that.
Say there are five months of the year that require heat. That's about 3,600 hours, 216,000 minutes. We burn roughly 15 pieces of wood a day during the cold season. That means we need about 2,250 pieces to get us through. These calculations, believe it or not, are usually in the back of your mind when you are out cutting. You feel like you are somehow accounting for future warmth every time you saw off a log; here's 15 minutes, there's an hour's worth. Driving down from the woodlot with a truck full of maple, the thought goes through your head; how much did I get this time, a week's worth maybe? I've never felt the tangible presence of time as much as I do when sawing up wood for winter.
My friend Dharman, who's now a Zen priest, used to cut his own wood. He said there are many activities in life where the goal or purpose is uncertain. When he was cutting up his wood supply, however, there was never any doubt about why he was doing it.

magnolia

Rainy. State fair has started in Rutland. Wrecked cars from the demolition derby on trailers, heading to the junk yard. Boats on trailers, heading away from the lakes, and back into town. Magnolia in the neighbor's yard is in bloom. It has very large flowers, pink and white. It blooms in the spring and fall. It's the only tree I know of which does that.

nothing

A beautiful Labor Day weekend.

9/3/09
Another beautiful sunny day. Two deer eating apples under a tree in Proctor. Red maple leaf caught in barb wire in the fence in the back.

That thou mayest have pleasure in everything,
seek pleasure in nothing.
That thou mayest know everything,
seek to know nothing.
That thou mayest possess all things,
seek to possess nothing.
That thou mayest be everything,
seek to be nothing.

St. John of the Cross

spin

Sunny & hot. Red sky at morning. There is going to be a stargazing event at the Zen Center, and I was asked to find an appropriate photo for the announcement. Found a great picture of the Andromeda Galaxy. Later that same day, I saw an online picture of Hurricane Earl. They looked the same. The same whirling energy, the same arms radiating outward. What's up with that?


Time is but the stream I go a-fishin in. I drink at it; but while I drink, I see the sandy bottom, and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.

Henry David Thoreau

tomatoes

Sunny & hot. Bowl of tomatoes available in the cafeteria at work. Flocks of pigeons working the fields of sunflowers. Gunfire in the woods. Children with backpacks walking to school in W. Rutland.

hot

Sunny and hot, highs in the 90's again today. And yet...Allyn hauls out the flashlight for the morning walk. Squirrel eating a nut right in the middle of Curtis Ave. Round hay bales in a field in Proctor.