Delicious Autumn
October 3, 2013 | My Jottings
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking successive autumns.” — George Eliot
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I took this picture a couple of days ago with my iPhone, just down our street. You can click to enlarge it if you like. The summer humidity has fled, the nights are turning crisp and cool, and the trees are superbly showing off before they drop their leaves and go to sleep for the winter.
Like so many of you, this is my favorite time of year, and it always seems too short. There’s a good chance we’ll see snow before the month is over, and then Michael and I will dream of being snowbirds again.
When I moved to beautiful Minnesota in 1981 (from sunny Southern California), I couldn’t understand why so many older people left the state for warmer climes during a winter month or two. Now that I’m 56, I totally get it. If I ever left Minnesota it would be very bittersweet, but the thought of going to a state with cooler summers and warmer winters is very appealing these days.
The sun is coming up and the sky is periwinkle over Lake Superior, I can hear a shower running, coffee needs brewing, and a hungry man awaits breakfast.
I hope your day is blessed…
The only problem is you usually get very hot summers with warmer winters. We lived in GA for 4+ years and the summers were unbearable but the winters were delightful. My grandparents spent the summers at the cabin they started building in 1949 north of Hibbing, MN, and the winters in Phoenix, AZ, when they retired.
You moved to MN the year that I left MN and married my farmer Steve in IA.
Hi Carrie, I know what you mean — if you’re searching for mild winters you usually have to endure sizzling summers, and I hate the heat more than I hate the cold. There are only a few places in the U.S. with mild summers and winters, and I’m sort of dreaming of retiring in one of them. 🙂 Isn’t the cabin culture in MN wonderful? I’ll bet you have a few cabin memories. God bless you and your farmer, Carrie! xo
Ah yes, autumn – ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’.
(Unfortunately it also brings the spiders indoors and I have a very deep phobia of them! Ugh!)
Autumn is my favourite season as well and it usually makes me want to give my home a deep clean before the winter really sets in. I say winter, but our winters are trifling compared to yours in Minnesota. Though wetter winters over the past few years has led to an increase in flooding in our county.
Today is bright and sunny and we feel the need to get out in the fresh air after a week of mostly rain. We’re also in the process of having our ensuite bathroom renovated and the dust lingers in the air to greet us every night when we go to bed. Such a blessing that neither of us is asthmatic!
We might stop off at one of our favourite places:
http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=13240
and look out for a few squirrels to feed. Happy, simple pleasures. Have a good weekend Julie.
xx
I get an instant visceral reaction to spiders too, Kay. Ugh. What a gorgeous park the link you sent leads to. I would love to visit there someday. Happy, simple pleasures — these feed the soul, don’t they? Hugs to you and Alan… xoxo
So beautiful, Julie.
When I first started asking myself the question “What did I come here to do?’ I realised quickly that one of the primary answers was “To see this beautiful Earth”.
To have the chance to be inside the beauty – to smell and touch and taste and hear and see it all – really drink it in – be lost in wonder.
Picture like you have shared here say “Look! Just look!” and I think it’s one of the responses God was hoping to find in us. xxx
You always put things so beautifully, Ember. I couldn’t agree with you more. The other day Michael and I were driving along near the shore of Lake Superior, and at that instant a small flock of Canada geese had risen to fly, and were just above us to our left, and we could see details and the beat of their wings, and curve of their necks. I was overcome with the harmony and beauty I saw in them, and tears fell right away. It was a moment of worship. I kept saying to the Lord in my heart, “You do all things well! You and your creation are so filled with beauty! I am filled with awe at the work of your hands, Lord…” and so on. I will never forget it. I wonder if someday we will learn how much of a health benefit it is to simply behold beauty. xoxo