all hallow's eve

a quiet, uneventful halloween with no trick-or-treaters, save one - a cute little bee with striped tights and pipe cleaner antennae. since it was the end of her halloween escapades, she stayed to warm up with a soup and bread dinner, as did her parents. pretty interesting to hear about halloween as seen through the eyes of a three year old.

not that i want to wish time away, but i'm glad to see october end tonight. october is so glorious and beautiful and special, but november is the time i look forward to all year. so good-bye, october. happy halloween, everyone.

muted beauty

here's the last saturday in october - with autumn foliage long since past its peak color, but still dazzling in spots, especially against a cold, grey sky like this morning's.

rising mist

just in time for halloween, spooky mist

rises over the river on the twilight ride home.

politics

must political signs be this big? do politicians think i can't see them littering the lanscape so they just made them larger? do they honestly think that, after weeks and weeks of looking at roadways lined for miles with standard size vote-for-me signs, i'll think about voting for the candidate whose sign is the most detracting from the natural environment, the biggest eyesore? with this election, i'm noticing more and more of these oversized signs. i'm not impressed and i'll sure be glad to see them gone. ten more days til the new england countryside reverts to natural.

that said, don't forget to vote on november 2nd - oh wait, how could you forget? the signs reminding you are everywhere!

autumn chill

early morning was again frosty and cold, with ice on the windshield and snow(!) pellets on the roof. all through the day i watched from windows as flakes drifted from the sky and clouds careened overhead. but at leaving time, the sky had cleared, the sun shone brightly, and the air was biting cold with the feel of winter. back home, i put on a sweater and heated some cider to warm me. it was that kind of day...

first frost

overnight, our first good frost, the kind that edges grasses and fallen leaves and makes the landscape look ethereal and sparkling white in the dim morning light. here, it covers the down of a grounded milkweed seed with thousands of drops of hoary crystals.

fall into the kitchen

what is it about fall that makes me so drastically alter the way i cook? here's the weekend's dinner, pot roast with carrots, that will be consumed several more times this week along with the garlic mashed potatoes not shown. and now this morning i am up early to put a roasting chicken in the crockpot. summer evenings were spent cooking on the fly, grilling lean meats and fish and concocting salads with vegetables from the garden. what is it about cooler weather that makes that change? certainly it's not a matter of time as i have more of that in the summer. is it just me??

and then there's baking - apple crisp, pumpkin bread, oatmeal raisin cookies... those never happen in the summer!

the lump in my throat

from the first early morning rescue to tonight's thirty-third and final recovery, i've found myself today either blinking back tears or weeping outright, wide-eyed and silent. what amazing resilience on the parts of so many people - governments, rescue teams, families, and especially miners. very thankful tonight that the rescue efforts in chile were so wondrously successful.

peak foliage

this is the color we wait for from early september on.

this is as good as it gets. and it's just breathtaking.

the perfect ten

on 10-10-10, it's the perfect fall day in the perfect fall weekend. apple festivals and craft fairs, foliage and wood smoke, pumpkins from the garden, butternut squash soup and hearty breads for supper. a frost last night gives the morning air that crisp coldness that lingers on your cheeks even after you go back into the warmth of the kitchen. this vibrant time of year is when i'm most thankful to be exactly where i am right now.

for the soul

there are moments when the sunshine and the north wind beckon, when the colors in the hills blind you to all that needs doing below, when you just need to be out and away from all that is worrisome or vexing or even mundane. so you go, leaving the work and the world behind - and don't even feel guilty about it.

c is for comfort

for lots of reasons that seem much less important tonight, today was not my best day. and here is the homemade cookie (minus the bite) with which my friend nancy surprised me this afternoon. it was a small offering but it made me smile and feel better and was one of the nicest things that happened to me all day. it was the kind of simple gesture that makes me want to pay it forward.

bah humbug 2010

today, october 2nd, the first day it's been chilly enough here to refer to the day as a typical fall one, i turn a corner in a large department store to view this: christmas 2010.

in a "normal" year, i notice holiday magazines have hit the newsstand by columbus day weekend. close to halloween, i typically hear the first too-early holiday music emanating from the tv in the living room as it plays in the background for a christmas promotion. but to have christmas this blatantly in my sight at the beginning of october is just wrong!

by my calculations, this display will be out for one-quarter of the year. at least they waited until i had a sweatshirt and socks on before they put it up.