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| She goes after her cake politely, surprise! |
Whenever my children's birthdays rolled around and away, I know it is that time of the year. Summer is tapering off and nights are stretching to be longer. The Sun seems a little hurryer to set and the leaves of the trees are turning a little less greener. October is a month of strange anticipation. Nature seems to have worked and partied so hard in summer, it is ready to puff off and take a break. The smell is a little different and more and more of my pine cones are falling closer and closer to my windows.
Like a giant farmer dusting his muddy cakes off his boots and flinging them onto the trees, soon, the leaves in the trees will start getting orange spots, then red and then brown. The spots will grow larger and larger and eventually all will just fall gracefully to the ground, making a welcoming rustling bed for my kids to play in.
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| Mowgli made himself a strategic and cozy spot under the trampoline. Can you see the pine cones sprinkled everywhere? |
The weather is getting cooler and it feels like gentleness surrounds you, want to kiss your neck and wrap your face when you take a walk. It is that kind of weather that makes you count your blessing every second you bathe in it. It makes you want to drag your feet a little longer from the mail box, hopes to bump into a neighbour when you walk out of the house. Makes your dog desire to be an outside dog. Makes you feel round and ripe like the pears on the trees in a very good way.
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| Probably the last couple of blooms. Smell it where it lasts. |
Lots of squirrels hopping around oblivious of your presence, for they know it is their last chance to stock up the plump green acorns just fallen to the ground.
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| We will stock ours up to the top in about 4 weeks. |
It is a season when your taste and senses are turned upside down. Pumpkins are appreciated for their carving potentials, sour apples are dunk in richly sweet caramels, the way to candyland is to be as scary and repulsive as you possibly can. Yes, it is the time of Halloween. Of spook, fantasy and Magic. There is a strange appeal for darkness and evil. Children enjoys the freedom to dabble into the talk of deep demonic worlds and parents delight them.
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| A neigbour's decoration for Halloween |
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| One family has been working as hard as the squirrels. Enlarge to see details. |
As a foreigner, it was difficult for me in the first few years to understand. But my son Thomas taught me the cheer and spirit of this special time. I have not seen a bigger smile when he came back from his trick-or-treat the first year I lived with him. His pillow case was filled with candy so heavy he had to use his shoulder to bring them home. He was barely 11 then and a medieval monk (a costume I haphazardly put together with a bale of brown cloth I found at walmart). It cost me $5 dollars to sew it and he paraded in it like it was $500. He gave me as much sweetness as one can possibly indulge at Halloween. Thank you, son.
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| Thomas at 11. |
My hummingbirds are still here and will be for another few weeks. They will go and the cardinals will arrive. The soil calls for loving and there are lots to do before the cold cloaks us. I have large plans this month, even with all my writing, I would like to have a "cave"(a room for Stew to hang out) and a guest/craft room set up. The list of chores is so long I won't run out of stuff to blog.
Today, however, I am going to reserve it purely for appreciation. On appreciating this lovely weather and all of the strange excitement building up in the air. Welcome October, I am ready for you.
