Alfred East

Even if something is left undone

everyone must take time to sit still and

watch the leaves turn.

Elizabeth Lawrence

The lane where Bruce and I go walking these days is awash with scarlet and yellow leaves,

 -  and walnuts fallen from the great, old walnut trees the neighbour cherishes,  

(the fruit of which I gather and prepare to glaze for Christmas...)

The leaves fall patiently.

Nothing remembers or grieves.

The river takes to the sea 

the yellow drift of leaves...

Sara Teasdale

In the orchards, and the hills, and along the river banks

there is nothing but the golden glow of Autumn

to carry us forward into the sombre gloom 

of November.

I hate to say that, but November is not my favourite month.

So much sadness, so much dreariness.

so much heartache.

But between now and the first of November we have that delightful

(and overly commercialized) celebration of All Hallow's Eve.

I have my candy and my witches hat all ready, but who knows

how many little goblins will visit down the street.

I was going to make carmelized popcorn balls

but my daughter told me they would just be thrown away

when the little goblins got them home.

There is such a fear among parents of needles and razor blades 

and sometimes I wonder what

that fear is doing to us as a society....

Will we eventually lose our confidence and our sense of derring-do

and adventure

and if we do will it be a result of the media and too much reliance on government????

Oh dear, time to put fear away and go and look at glorious October..

November will come soon enough.

George Eliot says..."Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it,

and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking

the successive autumns."