The last days of October have been glorious. I could hardly stay at my desk today and work; this afternoon I went out for a walk to gape at the colors everywhere.
In general, downtown Raleigh is not the most scenic of locations, but we do have lots of nice trees (hence our official nick-name, the City of Oaks). There are more than just oaks, in fact the dogwoods are my favorite right now. I wish I knew more about trees - I never know what kind they are. This one is... orange. A very nice orange.
Fall makes me so happy. The shortening days are off-set by their intensity as twelve hours of sun are condensed into ten hours. Buildings that depressed me in hazy summer weather seem suddenly interesting for their shadows and clean edges.
And of course there are the blazing, spectacular trees.
As color goes, fall beats all the other seasons, hands-down.
It also makes me a little itchy. Holidays are coming, and the air is cooler, especially in the bright, clear mornings. I can't think of anything but things to make.
cookies
spice mixes
sweaters
cards
pies
sock monsters
hats
mix CD's
endless cups of tea
Instead I have to write some grant proposals, finish a strategic plan, go to a bunch of meetings, make some presentations, etc etc etc. And of course I have to figure out confidence intervals and t distributions, things which are very important and which I will never remember again once I have taken the final exam in December.
December... when cookie-baking and sweater-knitting should be in full gear. It's not so far away.
we had a beeeutiful sky day here too. It hit 70 degrees, but alas, tomorrow it will only be 45? Trick or treat in the cold, kiddies!!
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite observation in this post is your statement regarding the intensity produced by the condensed days -- I've never thought of it that way, but, now that you mention it, it puts a little salve on those 5:30 pm sunsets.
ReplyDeletefall is just about the only time of the year we see pretty carolina blue skies ... and crazy intense sunsets.
ReplyDeletei'm with you on the changes of the season. my nephew helped me make two pumpkin pies today. and i'm craving chili and soups, and butternut squash, and i think sock monsters sound dandy too!
Ohh your post hit the spot... I love Fall... and the most spectacular thing are the trees, the intense colors, I have a favorite, its a bush and its known as the burning bush, during the Fall season it produces these awesome burnt orangy-red leaves. I also enjoy the beautiful blue of the sky, the crispness, and yes the early sunset. As for the buildings I love to look at them I work in lower manhattan and a lot of the buidlings have like gargoyles and/or pretty detailing and whatnot along the roof's edge.
ReplyDeletei am so
ReplyDeletewith you
on your autumn
thoughts!
i need to come
and visit
for cookies
and
sock knitting.
oh oh oh
and can
we exchange
mixed cds?!