Winter is About to Arrive, but Here, They Call it Summer.

This two-season climate is in transition: the luxuriant verdure and near daily downpours are giving way to denuded deciduous trees and the hint of a dryer landscape. Yesterday, for perhaps the last time this year, the road beautification crew, with their machetes, weed-whackers and rakes, passed by in the early morning. The noise excited the dogs, and I happily brewed a thermos of coffee with milk and sugar (yuck...) and headed out to the road. The gang were grateful for the break, and, truthfully or not, all proclaimed my coffee superb!

Daily, the massive tecca leaves come crashing through the branches like two-by-fours!  I hear the first high crash, and subsequent knocks before they hit the ground, sounding for all the world like ogres on tiptoe. I spent an hour or two daily stuffing the leaves into large plastic garbage bags on Saturday, and Byron finished the job on Sunday and puts the sacks outside the wall for pickup on Tuesday.

Finally, as the canopy thins, I have a chance to see the birds who call so alluringly in the morning. I have whistled back and forth with birds I cannot see, and finally, I have the hope of catching sight of my correspondents. This morning, an oriole appeared. There is also a species of robin, dubbed rather accurately a "brown robin," but with the same hopping style, head cocked to hear a worm under the surface.

Election day is coming up on 6 November. I have been advised to lay in whatever I'll need for both it and the day after, as all will be closed down, locked up tight - stores, buses, etc. Does the whole country stop to count the votes?  Nobody here seems politically involved or empowered by the vote. They accept the fact that Ortega may well be president for life, and though they complain about the corruption, they feel resigned to its reality. I registered to be an absentee voter for the US elections on the 8th, but when I log on to download the ballot. my lousy internet refuses to drill down the extra layers. I have asked Somerset County for assistance, with no response.

The vista is lightening up as the leaves fall, but flowers still bloom and the mercury is still in the 80s!