Back at it, mostly
My gap of silence here can best be explained by travel and illness.
No excuses, just distraction and honestly, probably a lack of discipline. I spent a month travelling in the U.S. for family reasons, and they were all wonderful family moments, packed with so much joy. Promptly upon my return back to the UK, I had my covid and flu jabs/shots, reacted badly, as I always do, and then came down with the cold/lurgy that seems to be ‘going around.’ I put that in inverted quotations because that is what everyone told me when I said I was sniffly and under the weather. Another tiny distraction was provided by leadership transitions in the UK government that seemed to keep our jet-lagged life slightly off kilter. Again.
I am now mostly back with health and energy, enough to go for walks, scrape dried wallpaper glue and paint, and finally start writing again. I had a lot of thinking time on my travels, and seeing old places that were once home triggered a lot of those musings. Needless to say I’ll be sharing some of them with you (and will hopefully spare you the especially tedious bits).
Autumn weather has been unseasonably warm here in the UK, and although it troubles me to say it, for this Californian it has been DELIGHTFUL! I know it means horrible things are happening to our one and only planet, and for that I feel so bad saying how much I have enjoyed the balmy weather. I know, it’s awful. Particularly for someone whose past career was focused on improving watershed health through sound science.
This last month’s temperatures have been so reminiscent of the weather we used to call Indian Summer. [Note: I am pretty sure that is another inappropriate term so I won’t use it anymore. If someone knows what the more appropriate term is for that spate of warm weather that comes just around Halloween, and you would let me know, I would be most grateful.] Â
This ‘bonus end of season warm weather’ reminds me of blazing hot Halloween afternoons in Northern California, watching my children parade with hundreds of other children in their costumes at school, circling in large class groups around the desiccated yellowing grass, while all the parents stand awkwardly chatting, and trying to find their child in order to get a photo at just the right moment. Then we would collect our children up and wrestle them and their costume home, and try to keep them calm for another few hours before the evening wave of trick or treating and candy crush mayhem would begin.
But I digress. More about Halloween later as it is now gone and I can save that for another day!
What about you: Do you have Halloween memories? What about that warm weather in autumn? What do you call it? Let me know in the comments below!
Meantime, Happy Autumn/Fall colours, splendid sunsets and dwindling light to you all!
