Autumn

We finally got cold weather, 31 degrees at 7:30, which I guess qualifies as our first frost. We also got a hell of a lot of rain on Saturday, which is good for the drought but which doesn't end it, as this picture shows.



We took it yesterday afternoon from the bed of a nearby reservoir. The water has been down long enough to allow plants to take hold, and its rawness, combined with the north wind, reminded me of places I've hiked in Switzerland, places that seem as if the glacier receded just a few years ago (which I guess now, in the global warming era, is actually true in parts of the Alps), where golden eagles swoop down to snag marmots. A long, sharp shadow ran up the length of the valley yesterday afternoon, and an osprey flew over us. We didn't see any marmots but we found this dead wood turtle (which is a species of special concern in New York).



There's been almost no Long Island Sound news lately, and I'm too busy to find stories of my own. Newsday had this piece about lobstering, which was written by Judy Benson for the New London Day and which I hadn't even had time to read, but I will, soon.