November in Northport

Looking toward Grand Traverse Bay on Saturday morning

What has come over me? That’s what I ask myself lately. I’m barely managing to put something new up this blog once a week. Foolishly, I also started another one, put up a single post, and haven’t done anything there since, either. My most widely read recent piece is one I tossed onto my odds-and-ends blog, “Lacking a Clear Focus,” putting a link to it on Facebook. But my primary blog, the one about books and the bookstore and Northport life? How can I neglect it so?

Maybe what’s coming over me is November. It isn’t that I’m not reading these days. I’m reading! Our intrepid little reading circle will meet to discuss Canterbury Tales on November 12, so most days find me spending time with Chaucer, and on my own I am at long last tackling Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace, and I plan to write about both of those books in the near future. But right now, adjusting to November seems to be at the top of my To Do list.

Most of our bright autumn leaves have been swept away by the wind. Many of the orchards are still colorful, but elsewhere brown is becoming the season’s thematic color, reminding us that brown can be a rich, warm color, the perfect antidote to cold, biting winds. Below are a few of my attempts to photograph one of Northport’s most fabulous trees, the copper beech on the corner as you come down the hill and turn onto Waukazoo Street. 

The tree is so large and so spectacular that it is difficult to fit into a frame. Some of my more modest attempts, photographing only part of the tree, almost seem to capture the tree's personality better.

This is an almost book-free post, but it does give you a glimpse of what life Up North looks like these days.