Spooky trees and a creepy bug

Trust October to provide the ambience for Halloween!

On a hike through a ten-year-old burn I found some pumpkin bushes, witchy trees, and a very creepy crawler.
































The bug was about 2 inches long. I'd never seen one like it before. It is a Jerusalem cricket.

















Update: Thanks to Dave for pointing my our way to a howling good time at Trees of Halloween, the Halloween edition of the Festival of the Trees, which I had completely missed! There's a second part, too, of Trees and Autumn Fruit.

What Begins

My poem, What Begins, was published today by the online literary magazine qarrtsiluni in their current issue, Making Sense. There are some marvelous other contributions.

Night tree

from a patch of striped night
in the arms of a shadowy tree
two sudden stars shone bright
peering down at me

















in a gesture of charm and guile
he sharply cocked his ears
offered a Cheshire smile
and quickly disappeared

Sun rises

while the days slip
into winter's tightness
each morning the sun
rises without repeating

After rain