“Autumn...the year's last, loveliest smile.” ― William Cullen Bryant

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
~o~  L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables ~o~

Looking out the kitchen window at the autumn garden, still

beautiful, I enjoy the flowers I always gather for the small
vases always on the windowsill. These are precious days
as soon the garden will go to sleep until spring...

Dear Ones...

Like Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the much beloved Anne of Green Gables books, I, too, have always loved October. If autumn is my favorite season, October is my favorite month of the year. The time I always called "sweater weather" because it's not quite cold enough for a coat but there is a brisk, enlivening chill in the air that brings me back to life after a long hot summer. Part of me goes to sleep, cocoons over the summer, as I have never been able to bear the heat since I was a little girl, save creeping around, early or late, to water the garden, or go out with the dogs. But then summer passes and autumn arrives and I heave a great sigh of relief and come alive again, filled with a kind of energy and enthusiasm I haven't felt in months. I begin to get work going that seemed impossible when my energy was drained by summer's heat. I take up my fiber work again, my writing picks up, the dogs frolic in the yard making me laugh as 4 little pugs, even tiny blind Penny, romp in the yard a bit, enjoying the cool, dewy grass. Penny spends a great deal of time sniffing about as if there are so many more delicious smells to snuffle in, the little boys, Tanner and Pugsley, 3 and 6 years old, race about the yard at top speed, and 14 year old Sampson tries to follow the little boys but quickly slows down to amble about, walking the perimeter of our fence line, and all three boys seem to think that the best place to do their business are in the new flower beds where the newly planted roses and other fall flowers have just been put in. The just turned over earth must hold great delights, as they travel about, hither and yon.

Sam is always a great help in the yard while the
little boys race about at a mad dash...

I cut brightly colored flowers still blooming, the last of the zinnias and the late blooming cosmos, a few roses in bloom, some little asters blooming for the first time this year, and whatever else I can gather. I love to have a windowsill full of tiny vases of flowers to look at as I stand at the sink in the kitchen doing dishes, looking out over the garden and woods, a peaceful, meditative time.

The little blue aster's first year.

And to turn off the air conditioning that we cannot live without here in this hot coastal region where the temperature may be over 100 degrees for weeks on end and open all the window in the house to fresh air feels divine, the cool breeze rinsing the house clean of summer's stale air when everything is closed up. Last night it got so cold -- down to 55 degrees which was a big drop from the 80's last week -- I had to close the windows and my warm sweet pugs and I snuggled under a big blanket while I sketched and wrote, working on the new eBook, read a little, and finally watched a movie, a favorite of mine that I have watched a couple of times before, Pieces of April. Autumn makes me melancholy in a sweet way and seems to be the time of the year I want to reread old favorite books and watch movies that I have loved and perhaps watched several times before. There's something comforting about the familiar this time of year, and soon I will be able to build fires in the fireplace with wood seasoned for as long as two years, cut from fallen trees.

Late blooming cosmos hanging over the
garden fence...

I find myself lighting candles and lanterns, paging through cookbooks to find good recipes for soups that will bubble and simmer on the stove all day long, and stews for the crockpot to start in the morning and have ready by dinner time, filling the cottage with good smells, spices and meats and vegetables, and there is something comforting about this as I walk in and out of my cozy kitchen, and enjoy the aromas wafting in to my studio while I sit working, as the kitchen opens on to the studio. Next to the studio my kitchen is my favorite room in the house.

My cozy country kitchen...

And now it's time for me to proofread this, publish it, and move on to work on my book. Penny likes to sit in my lap and help me edit. She can't see but she has a great sense of things and just seems to know when things need fixing, and the little boys are asleep in their beds around us, and it is a mellow autumn afternoon, a time of grace and peace, and I watch the birds at the feeders, just outside these windows, before nightfall, which comes earlier and earlier now, just before daylight savings time, and I savor every moment of every day.

Penny, "helping"...

I hope you are enjoying autumn where you are, if indeed you are in a part of the world in sync with our seasons, and if you are not I hope your days are pleasant and happy, full of joys and delights. And I wish you peace, and I send you love. Always.