Detail Diary, Vol #21

September begins and ends again

Sept 3 - 30, 2024

Dear friend,

A year ago, I started this Detail Diary. It’s been a fruitful and grounding practice: over 300 entries and 20 volumes. I love the way my entries have traced my daily commutes and arboretum walks and sometimes drawn me off those paths. Leaves, creatures, sky, colors, words. Starting the year over, it’s time to start retracing the seasons I’ve documented here.

Here’s where it all began:

September was a bit of a weird month for me this year; I came home from a stunning trip to the Swiss Alps sick with a lingering virus, and meanwhile had a big job interview to prepare for at the end of the month. I still managed to share details most days, including a sick day or two when stepping out of the house was really just what I needed. (My Substack was quiet otherwise, and having survived that whopping deadline, I hope to now get back to my usual deep-dive posts into the places around me and nifty plant stuff.)

Still, September was good to us. Gentle blending of summer into autumn, with rain and golden light and the first flagging of chlorophyll. In Utah, to which I had to fly for the second time in as many months for my job interview¹, the mountains were festooned with flaming autumn, ahead of the Grenoble schedule.

Read on for the details.

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Here is your usual reminder that this post is best viewed on the web or in the Substack app. (From email, click on the title of the post or “Read in app.”) Clicking on a Note will also take you to the browser/app to see its full text and additional photos. (If you’re in email and only see one, chances are there are more.)

For an introduction to my Detail Diary, see here, or peruse past volumes.

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This calendar introduced me to the exquisite work of Konan Tanigami (1879-1928). Have you heard of him?

This sanctuary visit reminded me of what I wrote there last October:

“And farther in, find the tall yellow-green grove, presided over by the plane tree, blessed by a red squirrel and the last amber shimmers of sun, fadingly intimate, chapel of dusk.”

Autumn is in the verges…

A quick journey back to Utah, starting with the train from Grenoble to the Lyon airport

(Here’s a post about the Vercors massif)

1. The job interview went well, I think! I won’t know the results for a few months; life in Grenoble will continue for a while yet.