Thursday, September 27, 2012

Signs of Fall

While doing my chores today, I felt an intense awareness that the season really had changed very quickly, from the warm sunny mornings of late summer to the crisp and foggy mornings of autumn.
Of course, I knew intellectually, almost in an absent-minded way, and had been adjusting to the fall schedule of outdoor activities, but this morning it just hit me at a different level of awareness.

 
I mean, I knew if was fall because school started for Daemyan. I wasn't mowing the yard as often. Weeding,... hadn't really given it much thought lately. Daylight getting shorter and shorter...... 
But on Sunday, after church, I passed the nursery and saw people picking out colorful mums and the urge to transition to fall on a more conscious level really hit me. I turned the truck around and went back to the nursery decided to stop in to buy mums for my back deck and ended up with not only mums, but a few "burning bush" plants that will turn a fiery red before the leaves fall off.
 
 
 I love fall colors and have typically loved the fall, but this year it seems as though I have been a little apprehensive about the changing season. The football season, Thanksgiving, Christmas, all without Whitey this year. He would have been excited about making a nice toasty fire and planning his Thanksgiving menu. I'd be recording games for him to watch in his "man cave" after work. Sometimes the silence is deafening. Without the summer's flurry of activities, the reality of the season is hard to ignore. So I try to do what he would have done, but with my own twist, of course!
I even bought a new birdhouse!
 
 
So, I will feel my grief and loss and try not to take any day for granted with all it's ups and downs, as we never know how many seasons that we and our loved ones have left.
 
 
Enjoy the beauty of the early fall! There are a lot of changes to come!
 


 

  
 
 
Just for grins...........
 
 

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Summer goes so fast.....

Time once again, has gotten away from me.
Daemyan has started the 6th grade and once again, fall is here.

Although the summer was a pretty lazy, I managed to keep real busy. Yardwork was never ending, and taking care of the neighbor's horses kept me out of mischief. Well, kinda... ;)
Looking back at my calendar, there were A LOT of trips to Home Depot, picking out paint, hardware, light fixures, toilets, sinks, tiles, countertops, flooring, building a new front deck, 6 weeks of swimming lessons for Daemyan and Dayla, Ed and April's wedding, Allapalooza, sibling lunches, painting projects, Stanwood Fair, my mini vacation to Twisp/Winthrop, Evergreen Fair and a trip to Mike and Kim's in Leavenworth! Oh, and Daemyan's 12th birthday, Dayla's 8th birthday, a new paint job and roof on my barn and a brand new truck! Whew!

Here are some of my "summer in pictures!"
 
swimming lessons
 
 new front deck
 
 Miss Dayla's 8th birthday

tons of mowing and yardwork!

 Painting at mom and dad's
 
 Sibling get-to-gether
 
building the kennel
 
horse sitting
 
sibling get-to-gether





New bathroom in progress


 
Alapaloosa
 
new Toyota Tacoma
 
And.................
 
Trip to Winthrop/Twisp

A wonderful friend of ours has a really nice vacation home in Twisp and graciously offered to let us stay there. So, I took him up on it! Sylvia, Noelle, me and Daemyan packed up and headed east on August 7th and came back on the 10th. It was short, sweet and perfect! We fell in love with the Methow Valley !
As you can see, we were not exactly "roughing it", which by the way, is fine with us.

Next is our trip to mike and Kim's in Leavenworth!

More picures to come, they are on the other computer :/