Welcome October

I’m back from my September break. It felt good to let go of blog writing for a period of time. But now it’s time to

The months fly by so quickly! Though I would like to cling to summer, it’s clear that fall is turning slowly towards peak color, leaves falling, and cooler temperatures. To complain about what is inevitable seems foolish. Instead I am consciously embracing and welcoming this season as I welcome and embrace the seasons of my life.

During my break from blogging I’ve been working on a photography/book project. In fact I buried myself in the project for days. It occupied my mind even when I wasn’t working on it. And when I had to take a break to, you know, prepare food or eat, I continued to ruminate on it.

It will probably be many months before I complete this project, which I anticipate will be a hand-made book filled with essays and photographs. But I feel like I finally have a sense of what it wants to become.

During this break from blog writing I still took walks in the neighborhood, at nearby French Regional Park and along Medicine Lake but I didn’t venture far from home. And I made far fewer photographs than I typically do.

Every day I worked on the images for my project and began writing the essays that will be a part of the project.

But enough about that. You will probably be hearing about it in this blog for months to come.

Signs of Fall

The leaves are beginning to turn. I saw a maple tree in our neighborhood yesterday that is the most brilliant orange-red color! It was spectacular.

There are rafts of migrating coots in Medicine Lake. Most years they stop, rest, and stay for two to three weeks before moving further south.

A raft of coots in Medicine Lake

I’m hoping that I will have an opportunity to photograph them closeup soon. But so far they have not been visiting the marshes and shoreline when I’ve been out with my camera.

This week a family of wood ducks has been visiting the pond every morning for an hour or so before flying off. I’ve been enjoying watching them swim to and fro in the early morning reflections. They are such beautiful shy ducks.

I believe that the hummingbirds left for their southerly migration a week or more ago. Since I haven’t seen any visiting the feeder for at least a week, it’s time to take it down, clean it up, and put it away for winter.

The birds are swarming my bird feeders and eating like crazy. I guess they’re storing up for winter. One of my bird feeders cracked sometime this summer. Though I repaired it with clear packing tape, the squirrels were very cleverly gnawing their way through the tape trying to get at the tasty sunflower chips inside. So I returned to the Wild Birds store where I bought the feeder and inquired about a replacement part. It turns out that the feeder had a lifetime warranty and they fixed it for me for free! I’m happy to have it fully functioning again as the birds flock to the feeders.

And I Must Close My Eyes

Putting aside my mind’s agenda,
I melt into sunrise. Light leaps
outside the silver lining of the
cloud bank in the east and races
to the maples. Clad in the last
remnants of their autumn finery,
the trees receive the sun. Lover and
Beloved meet, and I must close my
eyes to keep from being blinded.
—Danna Faulds

The decreasing hours of daylight are more and more noticeable. And I wish that I could stop time for awhile to simply soak up the light and remaining warmth before it fades away for this year. But the sands of time keep sifting through this beautiful thing called life. So I pay close attention to what is now in this moment and work on letting go of everything else.

May you walk in beauty.