Isn't sumac a most delightful surprise of a November ramble?

On this, the second gloomy gray-sky morning in a row, I'm grateful

for this standing upright in the dilapidated field, stark and startling

in the tattered sweetgrass, enlivening the landscape and my

mood. Thanksgiving is more than one day, it's a season of the spirit

and even as the easy bright days of finer weather have finished, sumac

reminds me: in a cheerless landscape - give your heartiest self.

All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar 2016