This picture was taken near Townsend, Tennessee, about forty-five minutes from where we are. I look at this and I feel so lucky to live here. I've vowed to enjoy the beauty of Nature more while we're so close the mountains.
Autumn technically begins this year on Monday September 22nd, so we'll have apple cider and make pumpkin bread that morning for breakfast. I'll be off to school until 3:00, but I'm planning to do a gnome/squash hunt at the apartment playground when I get back. If we're really lucky, it will be nice and crisp outside and we can all bust out our sweaters.
Michaelmas is September 29th, and I have a beautiful version of St. George and the Dragon illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. I was given the idea of a Michaelmas Dragon Puppet by the ever-inspiring Kristie Karima Burns of Earthschooling and the Waldorf Channel fame, and I think we'll do that. If we have time in the afternoon, I'd like to do some painting. Maybe we'll paint what courage looks like. We'll see. However, since Tuesday the 29th is moving day for me (our stuff is going to live in Virginia until I finish my degree in December) we'll be celebrating Michaelmas on Monday. Shhhh. Don't tell Ezra that the date is wrong, it'll spoil the whole thing for him.
Of course, the month of Ramadan will be ending around that time as well. Since I will probably be out of town and miss Eid parties, I'm going to try to include the children in some thankful harvest-time giving of dry goods. I've set some aside already, but we'll likely go the store and let them pick out something that they would like to donate. (No Isis, we don't need to give Tofutti Cuties to Second Harvest.) This is more likely to happen in mid-October than in the next two weeks, given how busy we will be.
There is a nebulous plan for us to visit my sister and nieces on the 25-27, providing that the apartment is packed up, and I would love to throw a visit to a corn maze or something like that in the plans.
And of course, one of my favorite times of the year is October 28th, Ezra's birthday. I'm working on surprising him with a scenic ride over the Smokey Mountains to see the fall foliage for the occasion. He can take a friend, and that will be that. I hate to rain on the kid parade, but I'm really over gift-giving in general. He'll be receiving plenty from other family members, so I'd rather just make a memory.
Okay, that about sums it up. Wish me luck on getting 20% of it actually accomplished. Now let's hear from you!
1 comment:
Here's the plan:
I want to convert the extra room off my balcony into a meditation/tai chi/kung-fu room. My grand plan is to throw open the doors and meditate with the sun shining on me in the morning, or while listening to the rain falling. :-)
I'm totally going to buy a pumpkin to carve because Halloween is the best holiday ever. For me it's never really been about the candy (even as a kid I thought that bit was AWESOME, but secondary) but more about the thinness of the veil between the worlds. So, I'm gunna carve a nice jack-o-lantern to scare off the bad spirits, and make my balcony all creepy.
I'm hoping to gain the use of someone's oven to convert the pumpkin into a pie and some roasted seeds. Pumpkin seeds are a must in Fall. There are also plans to make plans for a Thanksgiving dinner with some Americans, and my German friends, etc.
One year I collected all the most beautiful leaves I found on campus and sewed them all together into this big wheel. The reds in the middle, fading out to orange, to yellow, the last remaining bits of green. I liked that. I miss the colors of autumn in Tennessee.
My birthday is soon. Not sure yet what to do. It's my 25th, a quarter century behind me now. Any suggestions on how to mark the occasion in a nice, hippy dippy, meaningful way? :-)
Post a Comment