Wednesday, October 22, 2014

frost

If you weren't a fan of the upper Midwest before, surely after this Fall you've come around -- it's been such a glorious set of weeks!

But this morning, we did finally wake up to a significant frost. The leaves of the geranium outside were cold and brittle. I felt I had let the big potted plants down by leaving them outside.


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Most of the spreading nasturtium folded over and gave up.  But on the upside, it was a beautifully foggy morning...


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Hoarfrost. Always breathtaking.


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...even as the trees still scream Fall!


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[Inside the house: Ed, I think we finally caught that mouse!
Is the trap shut?
It is!
Did you shake it to see if it's there?
I can't! You shake it!

What, first crippled chickens and now mice? 
Fine. I'll shake it.   ...I feel it! It's there!
Ed picks up the trap and looks inside. No it's not. Failed again.]


I coax him into running an errand with me. I need his ratty pickup truck...

[Inside the truck: Well, I think the mice have found the cabin of this truck too...
We look at the shredded New Yorker on the floor. Yep.
Check the glove compartment, will you?
Fully expecting a mouse family to come scampering into my lap, I gently open the latch... Nothing.
We'll have to set a trap here too.]


I need his strong arms too,  to help me with the lifting of someone's treadmill off of Craigslist. Goodbye, old stationary bike with broken electricals (hello buyer who picks it up this afternoon anyway), hello new and equally boring equipment for increasing the level of activity around here during the bad weather days.

But this is not a bad weather day. Breakfast bathed in sunshine!


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And so long as we're doing things together today, Ed -- how about a walk in our the park just east of us?

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We talk about entrepreneurial ideas and ventures. This is my weakness -- I don't think in those terms, ever, even as he spins in his head what ifs and ventures and adventures in ways that boggle certainly my mind. Every once in a while, he nudges me and I try to think broadly and turn small projects into big plans and this is indeed what happened today.  Remember this post next year, as I unveil my small idea turned large by Ed! It will have been shaped by the walk we took today.

In the meantime, since I try hard to write about things that are, today, now, rather than about things that will be, let me end with one more photo from today's walk. Glorious indeed!


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