Last week was a yard-work kind of week. Spending time outside in October is no great strain, even if it involves blowing leaves, scrubbing pots, and bringing garden ornaments down cellar. In Maine, there is too much snow in the winter to leave most garden ornaments outside. I do leave a few of the staked ornaments out. Over the years, they have rusted and provide a nice contrast with snow.

In between work, I found time to admire the maple in our backyard.

Here is a close-up of this autumn glory.

But I also looked down and found this yellow fern.

Beauty above and beauty below.

Along with the beauty, there is also loss. A hard frost came and nipped the coleus.

But as my daughter Dee pointed out, the coleus brought color to our shady yard from June through October. And for this we are all grateful.

As we worked, Kai alternately napped and kept track of what we were doing. Here he is in napping mode. His perch allows him to survey the backyard. If you look closely, you can see the gazebo’s frame behind him.

Late Sunday afternoon, Clif suggested, “How about having a fire tonight?”

I thought about this for two seconds. “Great idea!”

The patio was covered in leaves, but it took me only five minutes or so to blow them off. Then it was a simple matter to set up the fire pit, chairs, and little tables, one of them makeshift—a bucket lid on an upturned plant pot. Worked wicked good, as we would say in Maine.

“How about some popcorn for a snack?” I asked.

Clif nodded. “And hot chocolate.”

Perfect for a chilly late afternoon.

We stayed out until the sky was dark and the moon rose and the solar lights came on.

A finest kind of way to end one week and begin another.

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Reading

I am the creative nonfiction editor for Résonance, an electronic literary journal “that seeks to encourage…creative works by established and emerging writers, primarily…about the Franco-American communities of the United States.” (From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s,  roughly a million French Canadians emigrated to the United States, my ancestors among them. My family name is Meunier.)

The journal is published annually, and Volume 8 is now available. And what a fantastic issue it is, if I do say so myself. In the creative non-fiction section, the varied pieces show the range of what it is to be Franco-American, and the writing takes us not only across our country but around the world in unexpected ways. The journal also features an interview, book reviews, fiction, and poetry. Please take a look, if you have the time.

Over the next several weeks, I’ll highlight specific essays. Today, it’s “Trader Joe and Trader Vic: French Canadians, Otherness, and the Taste of Difference” by Leslie Choquette and Jay Gitlin. In “Trader Joe and Trader Vic,” Choquette and Gitlin explore the history of these two businesses and the founders’ Franco-American heritage. It’s a lively, informative piece that certainly taught me something I didn’t know, and I’m Franco-American.

Enjoy!