flannel night gowns

Clear. Trick or treaters running the roads in West Rutland. Allyn is making her transition to colder weather. Winter clothes have been brought down from the attic. She has turned on the seat warmer in her Subaru. Flannel night gowns have replaced the evening wear of summer.
There are only two ways
to live your life. One is
as though nothing is a
miracle. The other is
as though everything
is a miracle.
Albert Einstein
Zen page a day calendar

The last function of reason is to
recognize that there is an infinity
of things which surpass it.
Blaise Pascal
Zen page a day calendar

as autumn dusk descends

sunrise on the other side of the creek

Snow! Sun setting further in the south along the Taconic range on the drive home. Going through what feels like a cathedral of orange  & burnt orange when driving through a grove of beech trees coming in to Ira. Stacking wood in the back. Middle schoolers waiting for the bus in the darkness & gloom on Curtis Avenue.

A heart subdued,

Yet poignant sadness

is so deeply felt:

A snipe flies over the marsh

as autumn dusk descends.

Saigyo

Zen page a day calendar

piles of leaves

Rainy. The time of the year when the darkness of some of the trunks of the trees are accentuated by the contrast with the bright yellow and orange leaves (not in this picture). Piles of leaves out in the streets. Signs for the Haunted House in Pittsford. They've been doing this for 31 years. Giant pumpkins out in front of Glenn Story's house in Shelburne.

averted imagination

M74 by Alsand on flickr

Rainy. Last night I got up about midnight to finish my sitting for the Term Student program at the Center. I took a glance out the window, and was surprised to see that the sky was clear. It was supposed to be cloudy. I've had two galaxies on my shopping list for some weeks now to finish viewing all 110 items from the Messier catalogue. Quite a feat if I do say so myself.

I quietly removed my telescope from the bedroom where Allyn was sleeping, and went outside. I was hoping Pete was up, but no luck. The red light wasn't on in his garage as it always is when he's out star gazing. I set my sights for M74, a head on spiral galaxy in Pisces. Is is considered to be the hardest member of the Messier catalogue to observe. The astronomer Stephen James O'Meara calls it the phantom. I didn't see anything. I went to M77 in Cetus. This is also considered to be a hard catch, but I found it right away. The sky was very clear. There was a deer snorting at me from the blackness. Back to M74. I scanned the appropriate area in Pisces very slowly. I have to admit that from time to time I seemed to pick up just the slightest wisp of light. I think I saw it. In situations like this, Pete would say you have to use your averted imagination (Averted vision. Get it? Astronomer humor).

When I came in, I put a check next to M77 in my star atlas. I put a question mark next to M74. I would want his confirmation anyway, but I want Pete to be with me when I finish up my journey through the Messier catalog. It never would have started in the first place without him.

twilight commute

Cloudy. Aspen leaves quaking in the wind. This is the time of the year when my commute happens at twilight, in the morning and the evening. I also notice flocks of crows doing the same thing, leaving the woods in the morning, and returning to them in the evening. I imagine this is a pattern they follow all year long, moving at twilight, but it is only in the fall and the spring that I notice them because essentially my commute matches up with theirs.

ordinary

 sumac

Clear. There are a number of themes that continue to recur on this blog. One of the main ones is how something that is considered to be quite ordinary can be extraordinarily beautiful. Consider the sumac bush. I can't think of any bush or tree that is considered to be lower on the pecking order than the sumac. But there are few trees that are more colorful during foliage season. I wonder why it doesn't get the credit it is seemingly due? The only tree that matches it in terms of reds is the amur maple which are now turning up in Charlotte.