Poem for Saturday

October's Bright Blue Weather
By Helen Hunt Jackson

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumblebee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And goldenrod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When gentians roll their fingers tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.

O sun and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.

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I actually took the photos below on the first day of November, but I forgot to post this poem two days ago. So sue me. *g*

I was woken up absurdly early on Friday by two cats chasing each other back and forth and back and forth and back and forth across my bed. With me in it. Not that that even slowed them down. Since I was wide awake, I got up and did the Sudoku in The Washington Post and was then so proud of myself for having done one of the hard ones (they do easy games Mon-Tue, medium games Wed-Thu and difficult games Fri-Sat) that I went and looked up a bunch of Sudoku sites online to show off my newly discovered talent. I was all proud of myself for finishing one puzzle in 23 minutes, and then I saw that the average for that particular puzzle was 9 1/2 minutes. So much for my brilliant new career on the competitive Sudoku circuit.

This was still more thrilling than my other major activity for the day: putting the kids' bathroom back together and putting all the stuff we saved from the old cabinet under the sink into the new cabinet under the sink. (Open door, remove cat. Put bottle in, try to stop cat from knocking it over, remove cat, straighten all bottles. Shut door. Repeat.) I also wrote a review of "Loud as a Whisper", a Next Gen episode I really tried to like but it's just not well-written or well-played enough to deserve it. Squeed about Equus coming to Broadway -- , you are coming as my date, yes? -- and snickered about Adrian Paul as Sir Francis Drake, with Temuera Morrison as Sandovate and a cheesy fantasy plot that sounds stolen from The Fountain.


A miniature of the other Washington Monument at Washington Monument State Park in Washington County, just off the Appalachian Trail.


And here's the first Washington Monument, built by the citizens of Boonsboro long before it could become a Civil War lookout.


The tower is 34 feet high and is located a few miles east of Boonsboro. It's a very popular place for raptor-watchers...there were a few at the top on Thursday.


Here's a closer view of one of the farms down below South Mountain.


The same local granite used to construct the monument covers the hillside below it.


From the top one can see into several counties, including southern Pennsylvania.


And a closer view of the glorious fall color.



: Eye of newt, and toe of frog...
1. Did you celebrate Halloween? Yes. Spread out over several days.
2. Do you like to dress in costume? Not big fancy expensive ones, but yes.
3. Favorite chocolate? Cadbury Dairy Milk -- the UK variety.
4. Best scary movie? Alien
5. Friday fill-in: ____ scares me. Religious absolutism scares me.

: What is...
1. one place you volunteer (or would like to)? Why? My children's schools. Because parents are necessary to make a difference.
2. one book you'd like to see made into a movie? Why? Marie Jakober's The Black Chalice, because it's a great adventure story, a good love story, has spiritual themes and with the right actors would be fantastic.
3. one creature (living, extinct, or mythical) you'd like for a pet? Why? Penguins, because it would make Adam very happy. (We learned from Mr. Popper's Penguins that just one would be lonely, so we need a pair.)
4. one place on Earth you'd like to visit? Why? Jerusalem, for the history and to see if I feel spiritually connected to it.
5. one talent or skill you'd like to develop? Why? A tolerable singing voice, because I love to sing but people always beg me not to!

: Name five minor characters whose lives and histories you'd like to see explored more (in canon or fanfic).
1. Kai Winn, Deep Space Nine.
2. Sarah Jane Smith, Doctor Who.
3. The Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
4. Brigid Maturin, O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series.
5. Evelyn 'Grams' Ryan, Dawson's Creek.

Watched Flash Gordon because it was there...I fear that it probably sounds like I really like the show, and really, I don't know why it is that I remember to put that one on whereas I never remember when Ugly Betty is on even though I am sure the latter is a much better show. It's so mindless, it's painless -- there is nothing that can happen on Flash Gordon that can get me agitated, no matter how stupid or sexist it is, because I just don't take it seriously. And now I must admit that, as a total non-shipper, I really enjoyed tonight's SGA -- the Memento parallels, the fact that the Pegasus Galaxy natives got to save the day, Sam's personality staying stable despite her memory loss, Rodney not knowing what he's doing, Ronon convincing John that he's better off trusting him. I have no idea who the adoring botanist chick is (I was expecting that cactus-ish plant of hers to be the one they needed for the cure) but she was unconscious for enough of the episode that I didn't care.