Word-less Wednesday

 Wow! I’m beyond gratified, so very, very pleased at your reception of my thoughts onpost-travel transition, retirement liminality — and the pleasures of looking, the resistance to wanting. All thoughts that seemed too scrambled,  too tentative, not rigorously enough articulated and supported, as I first tried to put them on the screen. Herding them into words, re-ordering those words, cutting sentences, paragraphs, trying another tack altogether. Coming very close, after a fourth or fifth draft, in the third week of labouring to make sense to myself so that I might make sense to you, to deleting the whole thing. Sorry, I feel a Sally Field moment coming on here (You like me! You really like me!), but you seem to have related to (so we’ll modify Sally’s comments to “You relate to my writing!) and taken the conversation further than I could have hoped. I don’t think I’ve ever had so many comments on a post — and every one of these has added something of value. I hope they continue — I’ll be reading and responding to and thinking about every single one of them. Thank you!

 For now, though, I’m worded right out, between Monday’s post and a quick catch-up yesterday on my reading blog. So I’m going to get closer than I’ve ever managed to a Wordless Wednesday, and just leave you with these photos of my fall garden.

I’m not even going to put captions on the photos, but I’ll happily do my best to identify or explain anything if you leave me questions in the Comments.

 Meanwhile, if you’re word-thirsty and you haven’t read through the Comments on my last post, they’re really quite wonderful. What a smart, engaged, thoughtful, and wise bunch we are in this corner of the blogging world. I do wish I could gather you altogether and serve you tea and cake. . .

If we did that today, of course, we’d pause, in silence, for a few moments, to remember and honour all those veterans who have served to bring us the peace and order we are fortunate to enjoy, in my part of the world, at least, and I hope in yours. I’ll leave you in that silence now. Comments always welcome, below.

17 Comments

  1. LPC
    11 November 2015 / 6:13 pm

    Fall:)

    • materfamilias
      11 November 2015 / 7:24 pm

      At first I read "Fail" 😉
      But Fall isn't Failing, is it?

  2. Anonymous
    11 November 2015 / 7:03 pm

    You make tea and light the fire, I shall provide sultana madeira cake.

    • materfamilias
      11 November 2015 / 7:25 pm

      Hunkering sublime!

  3. Lorrie
    11 November 2015 / 7:13 pm

    I read your post and will go back to reread the comments again. I didn't comment then, as it's been a rough week and I'm feeling rather dull. These photos are glorious images of fall – the sun is shining here, too. A lull before the next storm hits.

    • materfamilias
      11 November 2015 / 7:26 pm

      No need to comment, Lorrie. Save your strength! A rough week coinciding with the first big fall storms — you need to hunker down and take care. See Annie's suggestion, above. . .

  4. Anonymous
    12 November 2015 / 6:12 am

    Beautiful colours!
    Tea would be so nice (with teleport)
    Dottoressa

    • materfamilias
      17 November 2015 / 4:13 pm

      Yes, teleport!

  5. SmitoniusAndSonata
    12 November 2015 / 8:24 am

    Yes , tea and cake and the chance to chat would be lovely !
    And maybe , as well as remembering the veterans , we could think of their wives and mothers , sisters and daughters who worked so hard to keep the War Effort going , while worrying every waking moment about their men overseas .

    • materfamilias
      17 November 2015 / 4:14 pm

      Yes, we should remember them as well…They also serve…

  6. Unknown
    12 November 2015 / 3:01 pm

    Fall is beautiful on the island!

  7. Madame LĂ -bas
    13 November 2015 / 1:40 pm

    Maman and I were just down to Whidbey Island where the forest was splendid in its last glory. We met a woman selling forget-me-not pins to support van service to transport vets to medical appointments off-island and a woman who volunteered at a Food Bank for vets. There are so many more younger vets in the US. I picked up a book, The Muralist, which was timely because it deals with the world's unwillingness to accept Jewish refugees in the 1930's. Funny, but exactly the same arguments were made then as now. I shall read this book before I start the next EF book. Your Mitford post made me recall that I had read the biographies that she had written in her later years.

    • materfamilias
      17 November 2015 / 4:16 pm

      It's true, isn't it, as your book points out…these situations seem perennial. May we continue to be inspired by those who found ways to help, even I those dark times,

  8. Anonymous
    13 November 2015 / 3:09 pm

    Beautiful uplifting pictures …such rich colours.
    I'm looking forward to cold, crisp sunny days! 🙂
    It's been rather wet and dismal here for a few days and by 3pm it feels like the evening!!
    Have a good weekend Frances ….just thought my dad wanted to name me Frances after my Grandma but my mum chose Rosemary! I've always thought Frances/Fran such a cool name!
    Rosie

    • materfamilias
      17 November 2015 / 4:18 pm

      So we could have been name-mates. Honestly, I've always been ambivalent about my name (and sorry, but Fran makes me wince,although I like it for others). Now that two of my granddaughters have it incorporated in their names, I'm liking it more and more ☺️

  9. Anonymous
    14 November 2015 / 8:36 am

    Really can't beat Autumn for colour. Lovely photos Mary

    • materfamilias
      17 November 2015 / 4:19 pm

      Thanks Mary, it's a great season for colour indeed!

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