Poem for Tuesday

October Trees
By Siegfried Sassoon

How innocent were these Trees, that in
Mist-green May, blown by a prospering breeze,
Stood garlanded and gay;
Who now in sundown glow
Of serious colour clad confront me with their show
As though resigned and sad,
Trees, who unwhispering stand umber, bronze, gold;
Pavilioning the land for one grown tired and old;
Elm, chestnut, aspen and pine, I am merged in you,
Who tell once more in tones of time,
Your foliaged farewell.

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Yom Kippur ended up being all right, which was the best I was hoping for; my allergies are driving me crazy, and I didn't fast, but we managed to park fairly close to the building and except for the mob scene while the family service was letting out while the afternoon service was letting in (you'd think people would understand that you have to let other people exit a packed sanctuary so there are empty seats before you enter), things were pretty calm -- story/sermon on repentance, prayer and charity, very short service. We broke the fast at the home of one of my mother's oldest friends and her significant other, plus a bunch of other friends and kids and grandkids, good whitefish salad, excellent pie made by from the apples we picked Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, here are the ruins of Pennyfield House, where President Grover Cleveland stayed to go bass fishing to escape the pressures of Washington. Supposedly Mrs. Pennyfield once woke him up to ask whether he wanted his eels "skunned" or "unskunned" (he opted for the latter). The house is in such an extreme state of disrepair that it was decided not to try to restore it -- you can see where the upstairs floor has fallen behind the front doorway -- so the woods are slowly retaking it.













Half-watched Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip -- the latter mostly because we didn't turn the television off, not out of any real desire to see it, though as background noise it was fine. I'm alternately not very impressed and genuinely bored despite the lovely slashy moment on the beach at the very end. Heroes was more engaging mostly because I'm more interested in all the characters, though I'm rather confused by the apparent villain's (non)relationship to his nearest and dearest and the jumping timeline. At least, in this case, I care enough to want to know what's going to happen! With Studio 60, I feel like I am getting ongoing confirmation that the people who make television really DO believe they are smarter than everyone watching, and in this case not only need to spoon-feed the masses but to demonstrate how clever they are in their spoon-feeding. I just can't warm up to it.