The only flowers remaining these days in my neighborhood are chrysanthemums and asters.
They are a hardy bunch, bless them.
We’ve had a few frosts; so most bees and butterflies are gone…
I’m already counting down the days to the winter solstice, when daylight in the Northern Hemisphere will again start to lengthen!
In recent weeks I’ve re-discovered the pleasures of tea — my current favorite being Celestial Seasonings’ Bengal Spice with some honey — and soup (today chicken, squash, carrot, potato, onion, garlic and ginger, are simmering together on the stove…)
Yum!
I hope your Thanksgiving was delicious and calm and heartful.
Today I am throwing back to a very short blog post about why I love leading Music Together classes which features a somewhat silly song which I recorded using GarageBand on an Apple laptop many years ago.
“I’m A Baby Monkey” remains very popular with children of a certain age…
In closing, I thank you for reading this blog post and possibly jumping back to my Throwback Thursday post
My stats are fluctuating from modest (seven visitors on 11/28/25) to quite a few (55 visitors on 12/2/25).
I don’t know if my site is being hacked/scraped by some sort of bot or if these are actual visitors.
To quote singer-songwriter Iris DeMent, I’ll just “let the mystery be…”
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
May your spirits remain light as we head towards the shortest day of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere!
ps: Thank you, too, to the great photographers at Pixabay…
amusicalifeonplanetearth 
Will, I’ve been spooked with the spike in the number of views/visitors from China. I raised the issue in my blog post of November 2nd.
I will to read (or re-read) that blog post. I looked at the geographical map of where my visitors are coming from. There were some from India, but I didn’t see any from China…mostly USA, Canada, UK, and a few other European countries. Another blogger I follow said she’s been experiencing astronomical spikes of traffic, which I think she was told by WordPress was bot-related (and not something she needed to worry about)? I finally broke down and got a modern cell phone and hate hate to think about all the data which is being collected regarding my searchs, my purchases, my location, my travels, my conversations, etc. I hope the ethical people continue to outnumbber the unethical people here on planet earth!
Will, the disconcerting part is that we don’t know what these tech companies are doing with our data.
Yup…
wow will they are gorgeous..
I never get tired of flowers… even photos of flowers!
Maybe I’m being naive, but I don’t pay attention to those stats. Thanks for the bits of cher, beauty, and music Will.
I think it is wise, not naive, to pay little attention to stats, Brad. Let’s just do/write/create/post/share what we love — and if other people find any meaning or inspiration or comfort from it, hurrah!
Thank you Will. 🙏
Asters are among my favourite flowers, mainly because they do quite well here and extend summer into fall. They’re all done now, though.
I’ve started mostly ignoring my blog stats since they’ve been distorted by huge numbers of views by what I assume are bots from China. Strangely, they seem to like the same dozen or so posts, which they view multiple times per day. Even content scraping doesn’t explain that.
Going to visit your Throwback post now!
Yes, asters DO extend summer into fall. Well put. One of the blog posts I have the highest stats for is about a time I traveled to China. I wonder if actual Chinese citizens are finding/reading it… or just bots!
Hi Will,
I too am rediscovering the joy of tea and also of buckwheat honey! And making pots of soup. These are simple but lovely comforts that feel so fortifying.
Stay warm and cozy, Paula
Paula Ogier http://www.paulaogierart.com
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Yum! Late fall and winter are made for hunkering down… Thank you for dropping by, Paula!
I so enjoyed your old post and your song. Yes, children are all over the place in how they respond to music. It’s really wonderful.
Yes, indeed. You immerse your children in music, too!
I do!
Hey Will… I hope this finds you well and your stomach happily filled with yummy soup and tea….My flowers are long gone and buried under snow 😦 We are due a snow storm today dropping another 3-5″…Yuk. I love the beauty of the north but hate the snow. I am not a winter sports fan so I just stay inside and stay warm if I can…I miss the colors flowers bring in summer. White gets quite boring towards March….Take care….VK
Hopefully by March some snowdrops and crocii will dare to poke their little green noses up through the snow… I am eating more soup today and wearing many layers of clothes so that I can keep the fuel bills (which are soaring here in MA) a little lower… THANK YOU for dropping by!
I hadn’t thought about Iris DeMent in a while. Her song Our Town closed out the final episode of Northern Exposure, a series I loved. Take care.
Neil S.
I remember LOVING Northern Exposure. Maybe it’s time for me to re-watch some/all of it. Hurrah that the people who made that show knew about Iris DeMent and her wonderful, heartful music!