Fall Bounty and a Challenge

Though I am barely a week into my blogging career, I thought I would attempt the challenge of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). I actually view writing as a weakness of mine. I love to read and think, reflect and comment, but when it comes to sitting down to write I often feel intimidated or become somewhat frozen. This is problematic. A large portion of my chosen career involves writing. Indeed, I am a "writer" (or I should be). A very smart someone commended me for writing a blog and praised the value of regular writing and of attempting different kinds of writing (i.e. not merely academic writing, which can become overly jargonistic and stiff fast). I don't actually think that my academic writing fits that bill; it probably could do with a bit more jargon. Regardless, I want to be a writer and I want to limber up my fingers and get them used to regularly typing acceptable prose. Admittedly, there are many things about which I should be writing: Gershom Scholem's theory of silence, the collecting eye as flâneur, the silent female voice in Dorothea Schlegel's Lucinde, teaching methods, and then there's this article I meant to write this past summer about letters in Fräulein Else. Those things will get written too. A month of daily blogging will hopefully get me ready for the intense academic writing that will begin in December (maybe even late November). The posts will not always be long. There will not always be pictures. I hope, however, that at least one of thirty posts this month will bear some meaning for you.
The first day of November brought mild temperatures and sunshine (for most of the day) to Philadelphia. My usual stroll to the Saturday farmer's market in Clark Park made me feel both relaxed and excited to be outside on such a perfect fall day. The first tree to really turn in the park this year lies magically in the center of the park. Someone described it to me as a jewel. The real jewel today, however, was my CSA share. I praised the great bargain of this share before, but today's bounty really outdid itself!
There were the usual dozen eggs, two granolas, a local cheese (this week baby swiss!), and then so many delicious fall vegetables and apples: Twelve apples in total, a stalk of brussel sprouts, eight sweet potatoes of varying sizes, butternut squash, eight tomatoes, five small onions, two turnips, a head of brocolli and two heads of romanesco brocolli.
Here is Firlefanz investigating this alien brocolli:
All of these local, fresh, organic goodies costs only $20. Half of the share goes to Elisha (so $10 a piece). I can't get over what a great deal this is. It is possible to eat well, support local small farms and be kind to the environment without spending an arm and a leg. In addition to the share I bought a bag of red beans and two quarts of apple cider. Looks like I have a week's worth of fine dining ahead of me.
I had great hopes for a lovely vegetable meal tonight. But playing with my vegetables will have to happen at a later date, because something terrifying scurried into my life this evening and I have lost my appetite. I guess that leaves me with blog fodder for another day.