When fall comes to New England...

Cheryl Wheeler's "When Fall Comes to New England" is one of many songs on the new Autumn playlist I made on the computer this morning. Some are specific like that one, "Autumn Leaves", and "Turning Toward the Morning." Others are more atmospheric, expressing the ideas of transition, yearning, and nostalgia that come up at this time of year. "My Sweet Wyoming Home", "Miss the Mississippi and You", and the classic Tom Rush version of Joni Mitchell's "Urge for Going" are examples. (And then there's "In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus, Eins, zwei. G'suffa!" No need to explain that one! Or Tom Lehrer -- "Fight Fiercely, Harvard!" They bring fall to mind although it's many years since I've indulged in much beer or football.) What songs would be on your autumn playlist?

Here's a photo of the very beginnings of fall color here in Brunswick.
Onkel Hankie Pants would probably say this tree is stressed in some
way. It's a very tall one, maybe that's why.

Rusty spends a lot of time when he is not sleeping, jumping, or being taken for walks, in the manner portrayed below. He is watching for squirrels. When he sees one, he goes completely crazy, jumping, barking, or making a very odd noise, and scrabbling at the window (or, with even worse effect, the window screens) with his paws. We can hardly wait for the squirrels to hibernate.
You can probably tell that his nose and panting tongue don't do the window glass any good, either.
Today I inveigled him into his crate with a Frosty Paws and escaped to the library for the first in a series of lectures on the topics covered in Field Notes from a Catastrophe. It was about the melting of the Arctic Ice. Only one chapter into the book and I've already learned a new word, albedo. (Look it up! or read the book).
It's a worrying, not to say depressing, topic, but one we all need to be aware of.

I heard today that a friend from Minneapolis will be visiting in October, and perhaps also The Accountant will come from Seattle (not concurrently). I'm looking forward to showing them around Brunswick and environs, taking them to the Farmer's Market -- here's a picture of part of it from last Friday. You can get everything from lobsters to rhubarb jam there; there's also a woman who sells Indian food (naan bread and so on), cut flowers and bedding plants, eggs, and last week, one of the vendors who usually is mostly about vegetables had a sign urging us to inquire about beef hearts and such -- "let's make a deal!"

I've been working on "B is for Berlin" and found some interesting sites to link to.
But just to show that I don't live entirely in the past, I thought I'd update my reader(s) on some more daily activities.