Caitlin Burke

At the Copper Vine, on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

My stepfather started raising chickens and ducks in the yard a few years ago, and now he has a lively and growing poultry operation offsite. He added turkeys this year - we ate 2 at Thanksgiving, also a duck. (They were delicious!) My stepfather has always loved eggs as aesthetic objects, and he’s been entranced by the variety of eggs he gets from his birds. He’s taken to crossing some of them in an effort to get different egg colors (particularly smooth, olive colors). They’re all beautiful.

Snow in Seattle is fun and everything, but not if you have to go anywhere or do anything.

Seattle usually gets a snowstorm that washes away in a couple of days, maybe once or twice in a winter. Occasionally, it’s a lot of snow + a cold system that keeps it on the ground for a week. This year it was multiple storms in quick succession with occasional, desultory warming leaving zones of slush and ice, making this hilly region a disaster area for a week and a half. Even our best insulated family member is completely over it.

… we don’t get autumn leaves in San Francisco

Mind you, there’s another tree in flower about 30 feet from this one.

Looking through the photo gallery on my phone last night, I came across this picture I took on Halloween.

It’s getting to be winter-festival time, whether that means celebrating a few more minutes of sun or a special birthday, or just the transition from one major calendar period to another. And for some reason, I’m thinking about summertime.