Terrapin Station

My new favorite season

All my life I've declared that Spring is my favorite season. For all the reasons you would expect: new life, greens you can't see except in new leaves, bulbs coming up. I'm not so big on the usual, warm weather reason...because the weather generally gets really warm here, and our Spring is usually not very long. Not long enough.

Today I decided that Fall is my new favorite season. I'm gaining an appreciation every day of the beauty of experience...on a face, in a hairline, in a soul.

So the sweetgum trees I pass every day are dropping their seed pods (very fun to play with - earrings, anyone?)

and just a few of the leaves are starting to turn...eventually will look like this:

Cherished, because we don't get much in the way of Fall color besides these.

It will be in the 70's for the next week, glorious Fall weather. Cool at night. Sunny in the daytime. Eventually, colder weather will come, but it doesn't often stay very cold for very long.

The oaks are dropping leaves faster than we can rake or mow. The squirrels are storing up. Pecans aren't ready yet, but the trees are hanging heavy. There's a fruitfulness to fall that we sometimes forget, in our rush to adore the new growth of Spring.

Sure, Fall is about aging and dying. And there's no new life without aging and dying.

Don't you forget it.

Friday Five: Winter's on the Way

Singing Owl says at RevGals:  The picture is of my back deck after the first heavy snow last winter. I am looking at the weather forecast with a sigh of resignation. You see, our glorious unseasonable stretch of sunny days is ending and rain mixed with snow is in the forecast. The weather guy actually said, "This is probably the last nice day till spring, folks..." So, I am trying to plan ahead. Help me out, please.

When it is cold outside:

1. What is your favorite movie for watching when curled up under a wooly blanket?  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...which is very, very long.  Or Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Or something else. 

2. Likewise, what book?  Harry Potter, or Susan Howatch's Church of England Books.  Or whatever I have from the library.

3. What foods do you tend to cook/eat when it gets cold?  Mjeddrah...pumpkin soup...eggnog (homemade because my husband is allergic to nutmeg which is in all commercially available brands).  Chili.  Vegetarian chili.  Tamale Goulash.

4. What do you like to do if you get a "snow day" (or if you don't get snow days, what if you did)?  Stay in bed!  Watch movies, read books, eat food, nap.

5. Do you like winter sports or outdoor activities, or are you more likely to be inside playing a board game? Do you have a favorite (indoors or out)?  We don't have winter sports here.   Just regular sports done in the cold.  And I'm not a big sports person.  We also don't play a lot of board games at my house, but Aggravation (on a board made by my Bigdaddy) or Five Crowns are good. 

Wintery First Day of Spring

You can't always get what you want....

but if you try sometime, you just might find...

you get what you need.

-- The Rolling Stones

Yesterday was the last day of Winter here, and it was gorgeous and Springlike.  72 degrees, sunny, buds everywhere and blooms beginning.

Here are maple buds on my favorite tree.  The green tree you see in the distance is a live oak; they keep their leaves all winter and shed and regrow in the spring. 

Today, a different picture entirely.  Cold, rain mixed with snow, chances of freezes the next two nights.  I was feeling a little grumbly, and then my friend MidlifeRookie pointed out on Facebook that this is a Winter Reprise...a chance for snuggling in, chili, hot chocolate.  It won't last long, and all too soon it will be HOT HOT HOT. 

Thanks for that!  I think a Winter Reprise might be just what I needed this weekend.  Whether I wanted it or not.