For years, as the nights grew colder each fall, Stephen would say how nice it would be to have a fire pit. A few months ago, for his birthday, I bought him one. The first time he tried it, there was a lot of smoke, but last week he tried again and had more success.
When I went outside to join him, I was surprised. 'Is it supposed to be an angry volcano?' I asked, trying not to sound alarmed. I had pictured something more sedate -- something the cats might enjoy with us -- but I now envisioned the fire department busting down the doors after receiving a 911 call from one of the neighbors. Stephen showed me some pictures online of other people's fires, which were a similar size. I was somewhat reassured.
After a few minutes, the fire died down sub-inferno levels. It was nice watch the flames as we contemplated life in 2021.
I also considered the trees. As much as I love the fall colors in our garden, I'm also looking forward to having all the leaves on the ground, so that I can rake them up and try out our new leaf mulcher.
The birch is pretty much done, but many of the other trees and plants are just beginning to turn, like this climbing hydrangea. I've learned that there's no point trying to reason with trees, so I'm going to have to be patient.
While waiting, I recorded a new song. I didn't really have anything in mind when I was writing the lyrics, but in retrospect I think it's pretty obvious that it's about negotiating daily life during a period of great uncertainty (to say the least). It's sort of a 'watching the flames' kind of song, I guess, or maybe being in the flames. I also downloaded a new video-editing app, which means that for the first time in a while, this DeathCulture@Sea rock-music video has moving images :)
Link.
If I were more literal, I would have written a song about light between the leaves (or needles, in the case of the dawn redwood), which is what I love the most about this time of year.
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