Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the swing on the carport folding clothes. It was very quiet. Just the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and the rustle and flutter of leaves falling. It's been dry for so long that the leaves didn't change color this year, they just turned brown and are falling like big brown snowflakes.

The pines are suffering from the drought too. An extraordinary fall of pine needles rain down every day, and there's a lot more to come--there's a lot of brown needles on the pines.

Leaning back in the swing, I can see a sweet gum tree grown very tall and slender among the pines. It had to grow so tall and thin to reach the sunlight. It's top sways gracefully with the wind, bending like a ballet dancer. It's leaves which normally would turn orange and red this time of year, are brown spotted but hanging on. The leaves flutter and shiver when the wind blows through them. A beautiful sight.

It's a perfect October, one of the most perfect I can ever remember. Dry and sunny and breezy in the daytime with very low humidity, and chilly at night. I know the earth and the farmer's need rain, but it's been such a wonderful October without it. Rain will come soon enough--it always does.

Now a full moon is rising at twilight over the trees, low on the horizon, sharply and brightly lit--there's nothing like an October moon. My soul is in these woods; listening to the wind and watching the brown snowflakes of October.

susil