here and there: fall

this is what i love about fall.  this is the edge of the woods behind my house.  there is a little path that runs from my house to my grandparent's house.  i love more than anything watching the leaves turn.  i remember learning in a science class that these are the natural colors of the leaves that finally come out as the sun dies away.  that has always stuck with me.  there is something about them showing their true colors that pleases me.  it's almost as if they work up the courage to be their true selves and then let go.  something i've been trying very hard to do these last few years.  the reds are my favorites.  i love the way they jump out at you as you are walking along.  i always seem to pick up the red ones.

the girls and i have been steady collecting them.  picking up the ones we most like.  we have pressed them all in one of my heavier cookbooks and will spend this time in November pressing them in waxed paper, cutting them out and hanging them on the windows: a perfect natural sun catcher.  it has been a strange fall here, we had summery weather up until recently and then snow last weekend, not even all the leaves have changed over in the backyard.  the acorn crop (also a favorite to collect and put in glass jars) was stunted too.  it seems with us still running around in our summer clothes so late, Halloween crept up on us and we were running around getting our pumpkins to turn into jack-o-lanterns at the last minute.  the girls always carve their pumpkins with their father.  it is nice that they have a tradition they keep with him. it helps me as well since i have no artistic ability when it comes to creating something with my hands and the last time I held a decent sized knife I ended up in the emergency room with my finger sliced to the bone.  (i was trying to cut a bagel in half, now buy them pre-sliced).

so we have Halloween night, October 31st.  a night we dress up in costume and parade around neighborhoods so the girls can collect candy.  i used to always have them posed on the porch or on our old patio, perfectly placed in their costumes, individually and then together, and they were the cutest photos.  now i was lucky to even get a quick shot in before they ran out the door.  we go to emily's best friend's house since we live on a dark and quiet road, they live in a development of homes.  i caught these two quick photos before they headed out.  no placement, using flash in the house, so they are not the best, but at least i have some kind of record.  they were both ninjas.  we have thus moved on from the princess and fairy phase of their lives.  karelyn, looked tough as nails in her costume, and emily, well always the glamour queen, she of course went in her very own style.  the make-up job was her own, no help allowed from mom this year.  to me she looks a little like an elf fighting for Middle Earth, but that would be Emily.  i always have felt that when we do this thing at Halloween, we are really taking advantage of having one day we can kind of step outside the box and show what we could be or maybe what we are when we think we can get away with it.

So Halloween is over.  We've had the harvest festival, we've made scarecrows, we've had the Halloween party, we've been to the apple butter festival, we've carved our pumpkins.  We're headed to November now and that will see us finish up with our leaves and our preparations for Thanksgiving.  We will stuff ourselves silly as we prepare to go into the winter months.  I am not fond at all of winter.  Maybe the animals have it right.  The girls and I were talking about it the other day.  How the animals will fill their bellies or their burrows.  How they will curl up in a cave, or underground, or in a tree or in the deepest part of the creek and wait out the winter.   They will nestle in head to tail and sleep out the winter months when the weather is brutal and there is not much food to be found.  Please.  If only I could.  Can you think how lovely that would be, a long winter's nap?  Wake me up when Spring arrives!!