When cattitude and I went for a walk this morning, we were looking at ducks, and for violets. We saw both: ducks on the rocks, plenty of geese, and violets along the far edge of the soccer field, at the base of a hill most of whose trees have gone to orange, or brown, or dropped their leaves entirely.

We were also looking for late jewelweed, not quite expecting any, and saw two or three flowers.

What we weren't expecting was dragonflies. Cattitude said "Is that a dragonfly?" and pointed. A vague motion in the air resolved into a dragonfly. And two more. And we stood and watched, three, four, a dozen or more, floating and darting over the lawn, and against the clear blue sky. We watched until Cattitude got cold, and then wandered back towards home.

Dragonflies and jewelweed aren't November; they're high summer. The jewelweed has hung on because we haven't had a frost yet; the dragonflies are completely out of context.

A bit of late chicory, and some fine dandelions and clover, near the bridges that lead to the nature center, were pleasant but unsurprising. Most of the goldenrod has gone to seed, huge cream-colored puffs along the stems, but there's some still yellow, and some visibly going to seed, a blend of yellow and cream, the cream with fuzzier edges.

[crossposting to inwoodhillpark]