Sandra Neily here:

four cord … ready

Looking down, not up, I found surprises this week. Most leaves, except for brilliant, coppery beech, have left the trees up here around Moosehead Lake. I was not looking forward to November even though we got the wood in before snow.

I was feeling a bit down. Until I looked down. Really looked … down.

But first, this amazing poem from Mary Oliver to get us in the ‘looking down’ mode.

I’d always mourned the flowers going too, but now they were bursting with life. Seeds, soft and ready to float on the wind. Seeds jam-packed into fragile pods that will melt away in the next wind. Seeds, humped or loudly misshapen, advertising meals to birds and small creatures that would feast and then drop them somewhere else to bloom.

Fragile beauty everywhere.

I agree with Oliver about the Goldenrod “whispering goodbye.”  I think it is now so much lovelier with its gentle pink petals than it ever was when it trumpeted the end of summer with a crass, way-too-insistent yellow.

So now we will put the orange on the dog and walk the woods knowing that the flowers have given their ALL. Which has been a joy.

Don’t miss the Dick Cass post for Thursday, “Surprised by Joy.”  Thanks, Dick!

(And in no particular order, Queen Anne’s Lace, Pearly Everlasting, Clover, Black-eyed Susan, Mallo, Flox, Goldenrod, and some large unidentified pod.)

Sandy’s debut novel, “Deadly Trespass, A Mystery in Maine” won a national Mystery Writers of America award, was a finalist in the Women’s Fiction Writers Association “Rising Star” contest, and was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. The second Mystery in Maine, “Deadly Turn,” was published in 2021. Her third “Deadly” is due out in 2025. Find her novels at all Shermans Books (Maine) and on Amazon. Find more info on Sandy’s website.