autumn leaves

autumn leaves

the leaves are beginning to change. i love this time of year but often i forget to enjoy it; we're so busy running from one class to another, running home to have dinner, running home to finish a lesson or a music practice . . or to walk the dog and give the cat her medicine . . . last year on election day i remember walking home along the river from the winter garden theatre at the world financial center (after the day on earth performance) . . it was warm out and we were all excited that obama had taken ohio and pennsylvania . . and i was admiring the beauty of the trees in the light of the streetlamps. the orange and gold and red leaves were a soft and undulating archway over our heads and the waves danced in the light shining from the water. a few days later all the leaves were gone and i realized i never took an actual photograph . . so this year i would like to have a more tangible reminder . .

sheep shearing

we drove over to beaver creek farm in lyme, connecticut, for their annual post thanksgiving sheep shearing. one year i collected their discarded under shavings from the bin and washed it in my washing machine. then the girls carded it and spun it and made cute little kitties from the yarn. this year i lusted after a full fleece! but that's all i did . . was dream about it. maybe one day!
actually, the sheep shearing was not the real reason i made us get there by 11 am when they opened. the real reason was the horse drawn hay ride! nothing compares with listening to the clip clop of the horse's hooves and the creak of the haycart. the first year we did this there was actually some snow on the ground and i felt like i had gone back in time . .

october

me: october is going by so fast, isn' it?

m: yeah, and it only started yesterday.

the equinox

ok. autumn is here. officially. all the windows in my apartment are closed and when i walked into the kitchen five mintues ago to turn off the timer on the stove (and to turn off the brown rice that was cooking), the linoleum floor was COLD under my feet. autumn is here. winter is coming. c is in bed with a cough and runny nose and asked to have the light turned out and for me to sing her a sleepy time song, and it's only 7 pm.