Warm November isn’t a first

It is raining leaves.

The grass was mowed yesterday, leaving trails of crumbled foliage that marked the pattern of the mower. This morning the pattern is gone as the wind and trees conspired to again cover the grass with a crisp yellow carpet. The wind has blown some of the leaves into the gutters so they don’t get jealous of the lawn.

The few trees that are already bare yielded some surprises. I expected all the small nests but in one maple tree there is a nest roomy enough for some of the larger birds. A blue jay was sitting on  the rim of another nest that was obviously too big for it. It was squawking loud enough to keep all the other birds away. I suppose that was the bird equivalent of nyah, nyah, my nest is bigger than your nest.

The outside temperature is much warmer than usual for November. The weather people are predicting nice weather for the next few days. We can attribute the warmth to global warming or simply to the capriciousness of Mother Nature. No matter the cause, any day we don’t have to run the furnace in November is a good day.

I remember my grandmother saying that her dad died on an unseasonably hot November day. He had hooked up the horses and was plowing the field. He had a stroke and died. He was only 51 years old. My grandmother was 26 at the time. The point is that this is not the only November that has felt more like summer than like autumn.

 The other point is that a lot of my ancestors also had strokes but only a few died from them. I intend to be careful not to plow anything this month and especially not with the aid of really big horses. I don’t even own a plow or horses. It is best not to tempt fate.

The temperature has coaxed my Christmas cacti to bloom. I should probably rename them as they seldom wait for Christmas. Every year my mom would tell me that her Christmas cacti had two or three blooms. The one pot of mine that is blooming right now has 10 blooms. The others are also getting ready to open up their blossoms.

It was a little game we played. She was so proud of her plants that I didn’t dare disappoint her by telling her that my cacti had at least twice as many blooms as hers did. Mine will probably be finished blooming by the time Christmas rolls around.

I just heard that Alex Trebek died. It was not unexpected as the game show host had been open about his fight with pancreatic cancer. I am not a huge fan of television shows but Jeopardy was one of my favorites. It was a chance to exercise my brain a little.

Watching Jeopardy with my husband made me realize that while one or the other of us usually knew most of the questions to the answers, when we played together we would get almost all of the questions correct. The moral is that we are better together than apart.

In addition to losing a favorite television personality, our country has elected a new president and a host of other local and national officials. I am relieved that the election is over although I’m sure that at least some of the races will be contested. I certainly hope the next four years are filled with far less drama than the last four have been.

For now, I intend to enjoy the warmer than usual weather and the lack of political advertisements.