November

Quote for the Week

English poet and humorist Thomas Hood wrote:

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, - November!

Though that may describe much of this country in November, Texas is an exception to that bleak commentary.

On most days, the sun shines brightly in a sky the color of a robin's egg. I saw a couple of monarch butterflies flitting around the blooming lantana this past week, and most of the trees still possess their leaves. Of course, the pesky hackberry by the driveway is doing its best to carpet the stretch of concrete beneath it, but, then, it molts something or other the year round.

Fat doves that escaped hunting season cheerfully peck around my patio. The family of bluejays is still in residence, and millions of blackbirds land in the trees lining the block at least once a day. Those I could do without. Their raucous noise disturbs my writing enough that sometimes I have to go outside and clap my hands to get them to move on down the street to another clump of trees.

Takeaway Truth

Ideally, we'd all winter in Hawaii, but I've never been able to afford to do that so I'll take Texas in autumn and winter over any other state you can name.