In the early pre-dawn hours of Friday, November 19, there was a celestial event that was worth setting an alarm and getting up for: a near-total lunar eclipse that coincided with the Beaver Full Moon. I went to bed extra early and rose around 3 am, at which point the beginning of the eclipse was visible as a bite out of the full moon up in the western sky. It was a beautiful clear night with a manageable chill in the air. Sumner and I kept our eye on it right up to the peak at 4:02 am. I am ignorant when it comes to photographing the moon; the photo above washed out the moon and overemphasized its brightness, because it was actually almost totally red except for the slightest sliver of bright white along the lower left edge.
Full of coffee and with a workday in a nearby middle school on the agenda later that morning, I took advantage of this early rising to make a batch of brown sugar cookies to share with my crew of administrative interns. I made the mistake of using European butter which left them flat and gooey but they were still quite tasty.
The autumn seems to be flying by. Quicker passage of the weeks and months comes with age but the resumption of a regular work schedule for me is also accelerating that sense of speed. Let's go ahead and catch up on a hodgepodge of things here, beginning with the fall blooming of the front camelia:
Also, unfortunately, it looks like my newly-installed irrigation meter is still having some leaking issues; the guys from Pf Plumbing came by on Black Friday to put a stop to it:
The official shut-down of the irrigation system, including allowing it to drain out, occurred the Monday of Thanksgiving week. I've been very pleased to have it all installed and automated for watering, especially given my utter lack of experience before tackling it over the last couple of years. Nonetheless, as I mentioned not so long ago, large patches of the front yard just died out by summer's end, inexplicably. A bit late to be planting, as I didn't reseed until late October, but I did finally get some grass to sprout in the strange and inexplicable deadspots of my reworked front yard:
While I do hate that autumn signals the approach of the miserable winter months, it's not unreasonable to stop and appreciate when the maple trees along the south property line put on their show of color:
Here is a shot from the 3rd floor window above the parking area:
Of course, the fallen leaves are keeping me reasonably busy:
And sometimes my helper is less than helpful:
As I write this particular passage, it is the front end of Thanksgiving week, with a miserable chill in the air and light rains putting a wintry damper on the day. The first fire of the season, and the first since spring 2019, is pumping powerful heat into the fireside area of the kitchen, where the old men's chairs are positioned to fully partake of this pleasantness.
Sumner climbed up into my lap and we basked in the glow while I drank that first cup of coffee:
It's Fire No. 71 in the ongoing chronicle of life in the Roediger House, in this much-used and much-loved grand kitchen space that was constructed anew after we demolished the original kitchen, and that's why I was able to include this sturdy well-built wood-burning fireplace in the addition. I guess we had such a mild winter last year that I never quite needed to build a fire but it was a soothing and relaxing way to spend last Monday morning, for sure. I continued on my writing efforts, with a Miles Davis Pandora station on the Sonos, and Sumner having relocated to the chair beside me.
"Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies," from Yvonne Ruperti of SeriousEats.com. [Published 24 September 2013 / Updated 30 April 2019]
