November 20, 2007
· Filed under Writing, nature · Tagged autumn leaves, honeysuckles, pumpkin pie, rain
What a gray day — how typical of mid-November. It’s about time: the leaves at last are falling. The scarlet leaves of the white oak (not as brilliant a scarlet this year as they have been sometimes) are all gone, as of last week; the scarlet leaves of the young red oak (which never turned that bright of a color before) are beginning to fade, and fall. Even the alien honeysuckles are finally turning: their green-too-long leaves have paled to chartreuse.
And it’s raining. I drove through the drizzling mist this morning to go grocery-shopping — probably the last bit of food-shopping I’ll be able to afford in a while. Ah well, it was nice while it lasted. But anyway — I went to the store this morning on a quest: to buy the remaining ingredients I’ll need to make a pumpkin pie. As I pushed my cart through the aisles, I was surprised to find that I felt like a kid on Christmas morning: despite the headache I was trying to fight off, despite the dismal weather. I realized there was a song in my heart, and the words to the song were, “I’m going to make a pumpkin pie, I’m going to make a pumpkin pie, I’m going to make a pumpkin pie….” How many years, after all, has it been since I’ve made a pumpkin pie? I can’t remember. I got all excited about making one when, a few weeks ago, I saw a new recipe for one demonstrated on a noontime news show. The ones I made never worked out well before; and they were always too bland, when I wanted more spicy. When they showed how to make this one, I thought, oh, I can do that! That’s easy! It’s also promised not to be bland – then, I surprised myself by actually taking the trouble to print out the recipe. So, my trip to the store was a success: and now, for the first time in a long time, I have to make the darn pie!
November 4, 2007
· Filed under Writing, nature · Tagged birds, daylight saving time, early riser, spring and fall, walking to school
This morning we switched back to standard time. I don’t like waiting another week to make the change — when daylight saving time ends, I’m glad for the brief two weeks of early morning light, until that too is gone, lost to the increasing hours of darkness. Changing later means less morning light. I must confess I am a lark — a naturally early riser — one of the few. This has been going on for almost as long as I can remember: when I was four years old, I would get up at 5AM to watch “Popeye” and “Mighty Mouse”.
Of course it is easier to get up early when it’s light outside — especially in the springtime. But at that time of year, I’m often up before dawn anyway; I tend to wake with the birds. Their songs pull me out of bed. Even in the fall, as the light lessens, the birds aren’t fooled. The resident cardinals started calling at their usual time this morning — several minutes before sunrise — no matter the time on the clock. They pay no attention to what silly humans do to their clocks. I sometimes envy the birds for being able to live their lives on a more natural time: wake with the dawn, go to sleep as the sun sets.
So I’m not happy with the time change happening later. I have to remind myself, though, of a time when it was much worse: when the change back to standard time didn’t happen at all. That was when Nixon decreed that daylight saving time should last year-round. I remember walking west down our street on my way to high school each weekday morning: except for a few lights along the way, it was pitch-black. The kids who went to the Catholic high school (I went to the public school) would pass me going east, on the way to their bus stop. One of them was a good friend, and he and I would say hello as we passed each other. When I told my mother about it, she thought it was very funny that we would be walking opposite directions to school in such darkness: “Like ships passing in the night,” she would laugh. I didn’t find it amusing at all — it was dangerous crossing the highway to get to school from our neighborhood in the dark. Luckily, that didn’t last long — after about a year, Congress changed the law, and daylight saving time went back to its usual schedule.
