Welcome to Fall, all!
I do believe that the onset of autumn
a much more giddily anticipated event
down here in the South than elsewhere-
incipient cool-fronts keenly felt,
a brisk nip in the air and our ears perk,
noses twitch for the smell of burning leaves,
cinnamon incense, broody storms, pumpkin guts,
leaf mold and blessed beloved chill nights!
After the long, brutally hot dog-days,
they are finally on their way!

One day, this will be me!
Or I could endeavor to be like Mme. Tasha Tudor
(born Starling Burgess, what a name!)
She and have been
an inspiration to me of late-
those Vermont-ladies with their
old tyme witchy ways!

And goats!
We’ve been gardening like mad,
planting more fruit trees-
mandarin orange and avocado
and loads of flowers and herbs,
and the Oxblood Lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) have appeared
in an amazing profusion!
Bloody crimson clumps of them
have popped up around the sycamores,
in beds we thought were walkways
and everywhere else..
They are also called Hurricane Lilies,
Schoolhouse Lilies, or Fall Amaryllis
and are one of the many wonderful
antique flowers that fell out of fashion
decades ago, but still tenaciously spring up
around abandoned old houses and ghost-towns.
The Southern Bulb Company is a great source for those heirloom bulbs.
I want grape hyacinths, and snowflakes, and twin sisters!
Not to mention.. The SNAKE’S-HEAD FRITILLARY!

A checkerboard snake lily? But really.

We had another rare surprise and sublime treat the other night
in catching a surprise concert from Miss Joanna Newsom
who I had never before seen perform-
oh my stars, it was so lovely and amazing.
She made me weep singing Sawdust and Diamonds.
She made a lot of folks tear up that night, actually-
big fellas and little gals all wiping at their faces.
“And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour
the butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours
and my clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines
– Come on home, now! All my bones are dolorous with vines”
Oh my yes indeed.
What else?
Some odd birds and bits:
Man Bites Panda
Please do not bite the pandas, sir.
A friend gave me an interesting and beautiful
piece of music recently:
Matmos
The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast
Ten sound biographies of homosexual icons
which sample the sound of burning flesh?
Yes please..

We also went to see Jan Švankmajer’s film Lunacy (Sílení)
with my grandfather et al.
It was really quite fantastic, his best so far
we all agreed- Grampa commenting afterwards,
“It was a political parable!
I knew this because of the music played during the final credits-
it was a communist funeral march.”
It’s an homage to the Marquis de Sade and Edgar Allen Poe
(loosely based on his stories
The Premature Burial
and The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether)
with meat puppets galore! Truly stupendous.

Books for you and I:
Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia Volume II
Is it true there’s a volume III out, and if so where is my copy?
The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss
This book was recommended to me by Ben,
a wonderful man who works at the Strand-
he looks like a lion and has a very kind demeanor.
I took his advice and ended up reading the end
in the bathtub, sobbing because it will make you
do that.
I finally got my very own copy of
The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Vol. I
by the adorable and illustrious Lord Whimsy!
Expect a full review rootle-toot-sweet!