The neighborhood turkey
vulture is still hanging around while others of its kind
(normal ones?) are migrating. I'm starting to get
attached to it - my pet turkey vulture. Now that's
bizarre. Turkey vultures, hawks, shorebirds, warblers,
and other northern breeding life forms are migrating and
the leaves are turning and it has gotten downright cold.
I dug a long sleeve shirt out of my dresser drawer this
morning so I wouldn't freeze on my way to physical
therapy. Rumor has it that we'll have the first frost
tonight. I wonder if that will stop the invasive Asiatic
bittersweet and sumac from overwhelming my yard. Probably
not, but I haven't got the strength in my left arm to
wield the weed whacker yet.
For most of the summer I thought
the Asiatic bittersweet had defeated the sumac but the
sumac is staging a remarkable comeback. In the waiting
room at the physical therapist's office I was reading an
article in one of those happy homemaker magazines about
all the pretty seasonal decorations you can make with
bittersweet and how nothing says fall in New England like
those red and orange bittersweet berries on the fences.
Hmm, what said New England before some idiot introduced
bittersweet? Sumac? Nothing says fall in New England like
blazing red sumac leaves duking it out with bittersweet
vines. That's the ticket. Nothing says fall in New
England like vicious yellowjackets determined to take you
with them as they die when the cold comes. Nothing says
fall in New England quite like the Red Sox in the
playoffs - the pain, the agony, the bittersweet
disappointment. At least I was gratified to read a little
sidebar at the end of the decorative bittersweet article
warning that it's an invasive plant. Gotta lay off those
happy homemaker magazines.
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Today's Reading
Sea Room by Adam Nicolson, Notes and Sketches
from the Wild Coasts of Nipon by Henry Craven St.
John
This Year's Reading
2003
Book List
Today's Starting
Pitcher
off day - let's hope Derek Lowe composes himself for
tomorrow and the team regroups
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