As we near
the shortest day
of the year
I think again
on how much I love
celebrating with light:
adorning my home
with glowing brightness
(inside and out)
as the light in the world
reaches its palest point.

It occurs to me
this year
that it's not to combat the darkness
but to turn it
into something
new,
to give it
a quality
like shadowed velvet
that is the necessary contrast
to our December illumination.

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Perennials



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A different home
than the apartment I share
with the boy and our cat,
but so completely home
just the same.

Truly, it will be home forever.



----

"Through the years
We all will be together
If the fates allow"

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Anyone who knows me well
will know how much I go on about
the glorious shades of purple
in the Winter landscape.
On walks in the cold months
I am always exclaiming
over my beloved "winter purple"
as I love finding this rich color
in what can
at first
seem to be
a colorless landscape.

So far this year,
it is an early
"winter red"
that I am seeing everywhere
and I am quite enjoying
this newly recognized addition
to Winter's regal palette.

.

The end of the harvest season,
the start of the holiday season.


----

The Weather Station - Everything I Saw

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From one of our last Autumn walks.

I think it is safe to say
that the world here
has made the switch now
to Winter.

Thank you, November.

----

And thank you all for the birthday wishes!
I had such a lovely one.

.

We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow
as well as my birthday,
for I turn 25
on the holiday this year.

That seems auspicious to me!

So many things to be thankful for.
So easy to lose sight of them,
so important not to.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!


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Ô Paon - La Cible


.

Inside,
outside.


----

An interview with me on Daniella's lovely blog--thank you Daniella!

.

My favorite kind
of Autumnal collecting
from last year?


I am at it again.



.

I have shown earlier
one of the faces of Fall
that I adore:
the glowing days,
with the amber light,
& the leaves like fire.

But I also love this other face of Fall,
where it's beauty is one of subtraction,
a paring down
of the landscape
to it's barer forms
and most deep and muted colors.

.

We stepped out of the woods
to suddenly find ourselves
in a high, open space
that was ringed around with a fog
so thick
that we could not see the valley floor.

It was getting dark
and we had already decided
to turn back at this point.

By the time we re-entered the trees
the bank had rolled through,
revealing crisply green spires in the clear distance
and leaving no sign
that it had been there
at all.

----

Song for Jesse - Nick Cave & Warren Ellis


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Coastal mists
& now
Mountain mists;
if I am being followed,
I do not mind.



.

I learned to make jam
and how to can my results
late in the summer,
but I have had so much fun
playing with the bounty of fruit
that was still in season.

Some of the jars have been given away with love
and the others are settled comfortably into the cupboard.

I will periodically open the pantry door
to admire
and coo
at the jars
that are glowing like embers,
holding the bright suggestion
and treasured sweetness
of Summertime's fire
even as the flame of that season has dimmed
and the days here have shortened.

.

Making jam
in the waning light
of an Autumn afternoon.


.

By my highly mathematical calculations
I've come to determine
that most people generally seem
to hold Winter to be their least favorite season
and Summer to be their favorite.

It is my hypothesis
that the love of the in-between months
is where one really makes their stand.

Is it the blustery unfurling
of new green,
or the startling flame
of trees topped in amber that you love?
Is it the quivering of barely contained growth
or the gathering in of light
in the face of darkness descending
that makes you feel like you are coming home?

While I came around quite a lot
to the delights of Springtime this year
(in large part because of this book's influence, I now think),
and I know I will be very glad to see it again
come March & April,
if there is a camp for Autumn,
put me in it.


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