October Photo Dump

Anne of Green Gables said, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

Me too, Anne.

The colors here are breathtaking.  The air is crisp and cool.  The smell of fireplaces fill the air.

October is my favorite time of year.

I don’t have too much to say, I just wanted to share some pictures.

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We like to walk down by the river and crunch leaves.

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Our cat, who thinks she’s a dog,  walks beside us.

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We throw rocks in the creek.

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EK has a cheesy smile these days.

But it’s cute.

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It’s the month of costumes.  We were asked to dress up as a super hero to help out our library for an event.  Ek was batgirl and her little friend was Wonder Woman.

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For Halloween, she was Snow White.  She had so much fun getting candy.

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In three months, she’ll be three years old.

Her hair is nearly to her waist.

Lately I find myself remembering.

Today I looked at pictures and couldn’t help wondering where the time has gone.

I know these days too are fleeting.

Like the changing of the leaves.

Looking Out My Front Door

I live in a very cool place.  Not braggin’ or anything, just stating facts.  I have come to really love it here, and why not?  I am in the midst of the Creator’s glory.  Truly. Mountains, streams, wildflowers, and trees. One of the perks of living in a very cool place is that sometimes I look out my front door and see cool stuff.  And sometimes, I see not very cool stuff, like bear trash. Among the cool stuff are two big bucks that came to say hi the other day. If I knew anything at all, I’d be able to tell you what kind of point system these dudes were on.  But whatever. DSC_2141 Sidenote:  I may or may not have a thing for yellow vehicles. So do the deer. DSC_2146Not gonna lie, I was a little bit leery of being this close, with my little EK by my side and all.  Those are really some big antlers and I’m not real sure if they would charge, but of course the vision of being gored by deer entered my mind. A reel of every episode of “When Animals Attack” shortly followed. Our cat was very curious too.  You can see her photo bomb in the lower right corner of the second picture. Speaking of very cool things:  I have a black cat and it’s October!!!  October means Halloween!  Does anyone else think that’s awesome besides me? No? DSC_2169 Well I think it’s very cool.  The leaves here are in an array of colors and taking a picture of a black cat in fall leaves is currently on my bucket list.  Y’all remember this cat?  Isn’t she a beauty?  I have come to adore her.  It is definitely a ‘she’.  And her name is Rocky Muffin.  But sometimes EK says, “I changed her into a boy” so then we call ‘him’ Bagheera. As I don’t have a ton of cat experiences, I really have nothing to compare this cat to…..except a dog, and let me tell you, she is just like a dog to the point of jumping in the car to go for rides and following us on our walks. Yesterday, I tried to get some cool pics of ol’ Baggy, but didn’t really succeed.  It just so happens, unlike a dog, she doesn’t know how to sit or stay. It’s still a lot green here, mostly because we have some cool season grass, which unlike normal grass, stays green until Spring, then it dies.  So there’s more summer than autumn in my pictures.  But whatever. DSC_2175 I’m not giving up yet, so be on the lookout for more pics of this cat.  Maybe shoved in a jack o’ lantern? DSC_2158Maybe being gored by a buck? The possibilities are endless.

Favorites

I did not marry a literary kind of man.   I, on the other hand, love books, articles, the written word.  I come alive in bookstores and libraries calm me.  I love the smell of a new book, the way it has a little creak when you open it.  I do not own an electronic reading device and I still make trips to the local library to choose my books.

When I read something that speaks to me, whether it’s a book, a character, descriptive language, a quote, whatever, I always want to share it with someone.  This someone happens to be my husband.

I don’t know how long after we were married, after I had orated paragraph after paragraph of various topics to him, that  my husband informed me he hated being read to.  It just about broke my heart.  So now, I carefully choose my sharing times and always ask him if I can please read something to him.  He’s never told me no, he just endures it.  As is the husband’s job in marriage.  It should have been in the vows.

But before you start feeling sorry for me, just know that my little girl, EK, loves books.  Even thought she is only almost 8 months old, she shows delight in them.  She loves to pull every one off the shelves, chew on their covers, and eat their pages, which I think must be a sign of fondness.  Or genius.  Or perhaps just a nutritional deficiency, I guess only time will tell.

I get a free magazine called The Country Life.  It comes out quarterly and gives tips and inspirations for country living.  Things like how to arrange a fall flower container and the top 10 tools needed to get your home ready for winter.  Stuff like that.

But the very last part is an article written by a guy named Brent Olsen.   It’s very excellent writing in my opinion and makes you feel like all is right in the world.  So I asked my husband if I could read it to him, and even he agreed it was good.

And because I love to share things that speak to me, I now share it with you.

“Fall is a wonderful time of year.  A deep breath on a crisp morning expunges moist, stale pockets of air that have been cluttering your lungs all summer.  There’s a sense of urgency, an acceleration of pulse and ambition that turns the tired, sweaty trudge of summer into a brisk walk through falling leaves.  Winter is about enduring and dreaming, spring is unreasonable optimism, summer is growth and fruition-new potatoes and fresh tomatoes.  But fall is for planning and preparing.

It’s also about sitting on the patio in a worn wool sweater and warming your hands one the swirl of steam rising from a coffee cup.  It’s about walking across a darkened yard and seeing a flight of geese cross the face of a full moon.  It’s about settling in, relishing the sights and sensations of a world slowing down.

A house warmed by the memory of a sore back and splinters, and a kitchen table blessed by food there as a result of dirty fingernails, sunburn, and compost is a great and generous gift.  Enjoy your fall—we are each granted a finite number of them, and it is a vast mistake to let any go by without cherishing the moments that make them real.”

Fall and words:  these are a few of my favorite things.

And you?  What are your favorite things?