falling for fall

Remember I said that I was almost ready not just to acknowledge that fall was here, but to embrace it? Well, here are some of my reasons:

1. The autumn moons are spectacular, if only the clouds stay out of the way. My night photography skills are limited, so these are taken just after dusk on Tuesday night. Even this early in the evening, you can see how beautifully the moon casts its reflection on the water. I was especially happy to see this because I knew the Chinese students in my classwere watching for it and thinking of their families back home celebrating the Autumn Moon Festival. The next full moon, I expect, will be even better, because that October moon is often a bold red.

2. On a crisp, sunny day like this, running is a joy. The world smells wonderfully clean with earthy, leafy undertones and a base note of woodsmoke. And on my run, I get to stop and check out progress on our island’s Community Gardens. These boxes have been constructed and filled with topsoil, irrigation’s been installed, all since mid-summer. A group of volunteers meet once or twice a week for work parties. I have enough gardening to do in my own yard, but I’m hoping that we will get an opportunity to buy any excess produce.
3. I showed you a bit of the colours in my garden last post, but check out my neighbour’s Boston ivy (parthenocissucs tricuspidata — thanks, Une Femme). My photos don’t do it justice; coming back home from picking up my mail, I was dazzled by the deep rich red almost glowing in the sunlight at least thirty feet in the air.

4. The new fall shows — I watched Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money on Wednesday night and Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday. I’d like to watch Mad Men as well, but it’s too late for me, so I’ll wait for the DVD. (Speaking of DVD’s, I just finished my second time through Buffy, and I thought it was at least as good the second time ’round — I’ll be starting a second viewing of Angel in the next few weeks.) Not sure I’ll like Private Practice as much as Grey’s but there’s lots of knitting time there anyway. Really liked seeing how well Donald Sutherland’s aging in Dirty Sexy Money and love, love, love seeing Jill Clayburgh — she’s always been somewhat iconic for me, a 70s symbol of independent women when there weren’t a lot of those on the screen. She’s aging beautifully as well, and fairly naturally, it seems.

5. And getting to wear new cardigans — fall and cardigans, you know? Reminds me of all those plaid-filled Seventeen magazines back in the day! Plus being able to wear opaque tights cuts down on the leg maintenance – I’m not brave enough for waxing and shaving gets pretty tiresome!

6. Not-so-much keenness for the other fall occupation — the marking of student papers. I have a big stack to settle in with this weekend so better get to that. Meanwhile, get out there and enjoy the fall

Oh, and don’t forget to vote in my poll to the right — let me know if I should keep up my shoe-posting Wednesdays or not.