GOLDEN DAYS

SUGAR MAPLES AND ASPEN...

.. WITH A FEW BRONZED RED OAKS LEAVES FOR EMPHASIS

QUAKING ASPEN RESPLENDENT IN THE AFTERNOON SUNSHINE

SUGAR MAPLES, WHITE PINE, BALSAM FIR AND WHITE SPRUCE  ALONG THE SAND RIVER

Monday, 8:30 AM.  49 degrees F, wind SSW, calm with occasional light gusts. The sky is overcast and it is foggy over the channel.  The humidity is 92% and the barometer is beginning to trend down, currently at 29.83".  We could use some rain.  If it doesn't, I will have to go back to the last planting job, and soak the new trees well.
   The days have become golden now, as sugar maples and aspen leaves begin to dominate the woodland scene.

AUTUMN
By Grace Paley

What is sometimes called a   

   tongue of flame

or an arm extended   burning

   is only the long

red and orange branch of

   a green maple

in early September   reaching   

   into the greenest field

out of the green woods   at the   

   edge of which the birch trees

appear a little tattered   tired

   of sustaining delicacy

all through the hot summer   re-

   minding everyone (in   

our family) of a Russian

   song   a story by

Chekhov or my father on

   his own lawn   standing   

beside his own wood in

   the United States of   

America   saying (in Russian)

   this birch is a lovely

tree   but among the others

   somehow superficial

   We have to go to Duluth today, and Highway 2 should be beautiful.