Fall Outings

I feel renewed by the outdoors and yet I find it all too easy to stay inside. Kenya is a blessing in that regard.




Yesterday I drove to Wakefield for supplies and returned via River Road. We wandered along drawn to the purple masses of wild asters and the wild apples. Then the pine cones on the road demanded harvesting.



On the way back we walked down along the river with Kenya wading as I walked the shore.

We picked some apples for our pork tenderloin dinner and headed home.



Pat, Julie, Musasha and Siia came for dinner bringing books I had stored with Pat many years ago, a case of wine, a pear clafouti and Mauie, the most annoying card game imaginable.

It is, like the game devised by the rebel in A Separate Peace, a rule-driven game. The problem is that the rules are too numerous and complex for any newbie to manage, and they keep changing. Apparently US customs agents were introduced to this game in order to make them more sensitive to the problems faced by newcomers to the country. I wonder why Pat brought it to me? Perhaps as a kind of mental yoga to stretch the mind?

This morning Kenya lured me down to the deck with the Saturday editions of The Citizen and The Globe ... and my big mug of tea. It was glorious there in the hot sun, lounging, sipping, reading, tossing sticks and avoiding the cold water sprays when Kenya's shaking was too close for comfort.

Maybe that's it. Maybe you only get wakened up out of the comfortable stupor of daily life when you are shocked by a bracing dash of cold water or the discomfort of pushing yourself physically or mentally further than you initially want to go. Maybe we all need the surprise of discovering something we didn't expect. Maybe everyone can benefit from the occasional dose of Mauie or Kenya.