Shelter in Place, San Francisco, September 28, 2020

I’ve been enjoying for days the bright red berries across the fence - the neighbor’s acacia tree that was flowering in May (Day 59) has now come full circle and borne abundant fruit. Poor color-blind John, alas, is missing out. He sees nothing but a mass of green, at least from the deck where we are stranded (the heat and the distant fires have begun again to lay the city low). This is usually the loveliest time of year in San Francisco. Maybe there will be better days in our backyard before the bright red berries disappear.

Meanwhile, my FaceBook page is full of friends’ spectacular photos of the fall in Minnesota and New England. I can almost feel the glorious, crisp air and smell the end of summer all the way from here. Those pictures (and the berries on the tree next door) are at least some consolation in this week when we were meant to journey east for a wedding now postponed. How we will miss the family, I cannot even say! And how sad I am to miss a chance to see and feel fall’s cold descending. Ah well. Here we are, and here we’ll stay, enjoying the berries from a distance as we wait for better days.