Discovery Drafts

Skywatch Friday

The cactus that spent the summer outside and pretty much neglected while Adella and I were down south is back for another round.  It's good.  I was out for a walk today, and it was cold, and I was thinking how it is in the cold weather, the way your spend time with your family and the cold weather always brings you back to Thanksgiving and Christmas and reading in comfortable chairs by the soft light of shorter days.  We're there and we're alone and we're not and the cactus from the wholesaler blooms on.  It's good.  It's all good. Today's Flowers

Here is the view from the little path I followed after supper one day last week.  I heard myself counting down the days until the clock change, which will make walking after supper a flashlight affair for the next few months.  So it goes; I will catch up on my reading while I work out on dad's old eliptical trainer. Still, all these changes in the daylight and the weather are reminders that every day in the light is a good day. Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday

 For the first time in weeks, I have stepped out of my school teacher routine and have something to write about.  Not only did I step out of my routine, I stepped out of my state to be with my daughter for her concert at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennesssee.  She plays clarinet, and she was part of the NAfME National Honor Ensembles .  Six hundred specially selected young musicians from around the country met from October 26 through the 29th in Nashville to practice their music and perform at the Grand Ole Opry.  Here's Adella playing.  She is sitting next to a boy named Vincent.  She has been playing alongside boys named Vincent since she was a freshman.  This is  a different Vincent from the one back home, but he is a Vincent nonetheless.  (The Vincent back home is at UConn now; he is the first student from Nonnewaug to make it to Nationals--probably because he did the leg work and discovered there was such a thing and auditioned.  This young man is my hero for

Halloween is the best holiday of the year, hands down.  Why?  Because it dresses up in orange.  The boldness, the audacity, the unmitigated cheer of orange cannot be denied. Orange says, "I am here, I am happy, and I will dance until I'm dead."  Which it does when November and its big winds roll in.  Why else?  Because adults go out of their way to have fun for the fun of it and for the kids.  It's a miracle, really.  We all work hard for our money, and in Connecticut we are bound to give most of it to the state and federal government and to the insurance company in blindingly large chunks.  But what do we do with what's left?  String up fake dead people in our trees, throw some spotlights on them, and then give candy to the dressed up kids who show up screaming and laughing.  The screaming and the laughing and the empty candy bowl are the rewards.  That's it.  For the price of a bag of candy and the investment of a little imagination, you can make countl