Still a klutz

So I was rushing to a meeting at work, and there's this security door -- wooden, about 2" thick -- and my brain just registered that the door was open, and not that it would start swinging shut. So I crashed into the edge of it, and I have a 3" bruise on my knee and heaven knows how big a bruise on my forehead. Time for the ice pack.

Fall color, delicious rain

I'd forgotten that fall color doesn't really start 'til October, but this past week it's finally under way. Already, the alternating yellow and dark purple fall leaves beside Harris School have mostly dropped, and the flame-colored poplars by Edgewood School are at their brightest. The oaks and maples are just getting started. There are lots of trees in the immediate neighborhood -- maples and liquidambars -- that turn the most lovely colors: bright rose pink, shading through orange into yellow, all on one tree. Here in Eugene, of course, fall foliage often has a backdrop of dark green from the douglas-firs and ponderosa pines, so there's a nice contrast.

After picking up D. today, we drove around a bit so that we'd have time to listen to three Steeleye Span songs (the one about Robin Hood, "All Around My Hat," and the one about the elven queen demanding that a knight dance with her), and I really liked looking at the trees. Then we got home, and he remarked in surprise how fast the clouds were moving overhead, and wondered why. I suggested they were bringing in more rain. Sure enough, later in the afternoon we were both napping, and I awoke to the fresh sound of steady rainfall outside, making the house so cozy within. I read some of Riverwalking, short essays and remembrances associated with rivers, by Kathleen Dean Moore, who's a philosophy professor at Oregon State. Here's a worthwhile interview with her, and more info on her and her other books. She'll be at the ASLE conference in June.