all gone

this is a european beech tree. some of my beloved readers (all 4.5 of you) may recognize this photo, because i took a similar one last year and put it on our calendar. but this tree looks nothing like this now. all the leaves are gone, and the sky is gray.... yes, winter has arrived in the coast range. i heard the weather dude say today, 'continued showers, particularly in the coast range'. ever since i uprooted myself from a state with four distinct seasons at the tender age of 19 and plopped myself down again in the pacific northwest forest, for the first time, i have enjoyed the coming of the rains. here in these hills, much like in the coast redwoods, but not quite as BIG, the rains make me feel cozy, sort of tucked in for the winter. the grasslands of the greater willamette valley have lost their dried up look of late summer, early fall and have a new lush carpet of very bright green. the brilliant yellows and reds have nearly all disappated, and now we are left with varying shades of green everywhere. green, which i will tell my children is my favorite color, which holds the promise of growth, makes the pacific nw a great place to be in the winter.
now if only there were a few more hours tacked on to the end of the day for knitting, and a few (light) hours tacked onto the beginning of the day for hiking in the rain, that would be great, but alas, it got dark early tonight, with eleanor barely out of her dance class, and gus and his pal dueling in the near darkness after gymnastics. again we had the discussion of why it is so dark and daylight savings and all that. it is a really kooky thing we do, you know? i mean, why don't we just decide that noon is really at 10:00, and that way we wouldn't have to wait so long for lunch? that would work for a growing boy whose mantra is 'i'm hungry' and then we could put that whole 5-6 hour earlier, too, so i wouldn't be quite so exhausted when i'm making dinner. Then perhaps the hours between noon and 5 could stretch out a little more so there was a bit more time in the afternoon. the time-change time always sends my brain this way, thinking, who invented clocks and why are we slaves to them, anyway?
if i knew how to get a 'this is what i'm reading' list with photos of books on the side of my blog, i would have them, but i have only seen typepad blogs with those, not blogger--any advice? then i would put this book up

because this book is beside my bed and i have been reading it bit by bit.
along with this book:



which is good for anyone any age whether they once were seven, are now, or will someday be seven.
maybe i have figured out how to make this list and tomorrow i will do it!
aha! i learned something new today. yay.
that is one of the principles of this book: