October
By Siegfried Sassoon
Across the land a faint blue veil of mist
Seems hung; the woods wear yet arrayment sober
Till frost shall make them flame; silent and whist
The drooping cherry orchards of October
Like mournful pennons hang their shrivelling leaves
Russet and orange: all things now decay;
Long since ye garnered in your autumn sheaves,
And sad the robins pipe at set of day.
Now do ye dream of Spring when greening shaws
Confer with the shrewd breezes, and of slopes
Flower-kirtled, and of April, virgin guest;
Days that ye love, despite their windy flaws,
Since they are woven with all joys and hopes
Whereof ye nevermore shall be possessed.
--------
For
My afternoon today was taken up with a fourth grade class field trip to a local stream so the kids could see what plants and animals they could identify and try to determine how healthy it is. We walked to the stream, which is the same one that runs through the woods behind my parents' house, along which we often see deer and over the years have found snakes, turtles, frogs, toads, rabbits, raccoons, opossums and many other animals living along it. It's about a half-mile walk from the school to the spot where we did our observations, down a steep muddy hill where there was much ruination of clothes, though that hardly mattered because the kids waded into the stream to stir up the mud at the bottom and see what invertebrates could be directed into their nets. There were three groups -- I went with my son's group along with another mother, and for the most part we were left on our own, as the classroom teacher and both guides were with the other groups.
This was fine, however, as our group found several salamanders and small fish -- a more impressive catch than the other groups managed. Nobody caught a crayfish or a turtle, which was of some disappointment, but I don't think it's the best season for either and we were only there for an hour and a half or so. The group we were with was both fearless about getting wet/muddy (I gather that some of the kids did not want to get cold/dirty) and extremely excitable and enthusiastic not only about creek invertebrates but also spiders, lichen, mushrooms, downed logs, dog poop and other discoveries. I had my ear talked off about volcanoes in Hawaii walking in one direction by a child I had never met before, and about how you can visit the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock in the other direction. I really had a lovely time.
In regard to my earlier post, I have found the Frontiers interview with George Takei in its entirety, and wrote it up tonight since none of the other Trek sites appear to have tracked it down yet. It's a wonderful interview -- he talks about his new production of Equus and a bit about parallels between growing up gay and growing up in a Japanese-American internment camp (which I did not mention before because I knew it from his autobiography but he is a fascinating man with an amazing personal history). The full interview is here or, if you want my abbreviated version, please visit TrekToday!
And now, on a shallow note, I must squee about this week's Smallville, which is one of the guiltiest pleasures ever and one of my favorite episodes of all time.
Here is one of the little salamanders we found...
...and a fish...
...and a spider...
...and lichen.
Specimen-hunting is serious business.
After Slashville I watched "A Taste of Armageddon", yet another original Trek episode which holds up rather beautifully and which ends with some beautiful Kirk/Spock bonding, though the main four all have great lines in this one. Plus
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