November super moon

All day I have been disoriented. One thread of myself not following the other.

The weather report says
“Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 35F. Winds light and variable.”

But they didn’t mention that the full moon tonight is the closest moon to rise in almost 69 years. In fact, the full moon won’t come this close to Earth again until Nov. 25, 2034.

All I know is that my Saga Chrysanthemums have finally bloomed.

Things That Lose by Being Painted

Sei Shonagon in The Pillow Book has a short list for Things That Lose by Being Painted: “Pinks, cherry blossoms, yellow roses. Men or women who are praised in romances as being beautiful.”

I was invited to a Beethovan string quartet concert at the surviving A.J. Davis Hudson River villa, the Dr. Oliver Bronson House in Hudson, NY. A.J. Davis was one of America’s greatest architects and the house is fantastic. The bones are all there and it’s being restored, but right now it’s a beautiful place with it’s peeling paint and marvelous hundred year old wall paper.

The ink dark moon

It’s true, the wind blows terribly here.

But moonlight also leaks

between the roof planks

of this ruined house.

– Izumi Shikibu (translated by Jane Hirshfield)