Recently Returned.

My first few months back in the US have flown by and though fall is still a few calendar weeks away the temperature is slowly dropping here in Pittsburgh, mine and Amy's new base. We are nearly settled into our apartment--pictures on the walls, books on selves, my kayak in the bathroom closet--I say nearly because we still need a screen for our kitchen window. This opening gives some of our smaller neighbors (2 gray and 1 charcoal colored squirrel) access to our compost bucket and my ever expanding pile of black walnuts.

In Jersey a few weeks back while pawpaws ripened and fell deliciously to the ground a friend introduced me to the tasty native nuts of Juglans nigra. Sensing the impending autumn I (like the squirrels) have began to garner a stockpile for winter.

Our new neighborhood (Squirrel Hill--yes they were here first) is a walkable residential community bordered by several large city parks and two rivers--9 Mile Run and the Monongahela. The Mon joins the Allegheny River a few miles downstream and forms the Ohio River. This joins the Mississippi about 980 miles to the west.

Though many of the region's rivers have overcome their industrial pasts the Mon is one of American Rivers most endangered rivers of 2010 and as far as contact with the waters of 9 Mile Run, I was told "they don't recommend that." (Glad I kept my mouth shut) They, apparently, have never been swimming in Dhaka.