hello, november.

So, here we are, in November.  October was of course, as October tends to be, quite lovely.  What with all the misty mornings and startlingly blue afternoon skies, the crunch of leaves underfoot, the amassing of pumpkins and other gourds, and that amazing juxtaposition of primary-colored leaves against a contrasting primary-colored sky.  The sudden onset of slipper wearing and fire-stoking.  The marked increase in hot tea consumption....

The changing of the leaves came to us a bit late here in Western NC and we are only right now in the thick of it here in down.  Just past peak, I'd say.  The hickories have gone from bright mustard to golden brown, the sourwoods vary widely from one location to another.  The sugar maples (few and far between here as compared to up north) are wearing their brilliant glow-orange attire, their more common red maple cousins ranging from bright red to deep scarlet.  We have an abundance of oak trees around, especially white oaks.  They will don their rusty-brown and tannin-rich leaves for weeks and weeks to come, slowly dropping them down to cover this little part of the world quite thoroughly.

It's been a while since I've spent time in this place, hmm?  And I'd even made a 'commitment' of sorts to write more, to show up here more often and unspool the thoughts in my mind and sort through them with intention fairly regularly.  To do so with words.  Well, it's a real thing, it seems, that "Instagram ate my blog" bit.  As quiet as I've been here, I've been sharing daily on Instagram.  About parenting and gardening and looking for land.  About voting and tea drinking and my love of living in a train town.  About herbs and inspiration, and rather a lot about the glorious cosmos flowers in my garden this year. Something about the ease of sharing a photo and a few words from my phone (!) just makes me so much less likely to sit myself down in front of the computer for time enough to put together something more.  Having only recently joined the ranks of smartphone users and Instagram account holding,  I've been a bit swept up in the convenience and beauty of that world.  I've not put anything else on my phone- my email, Facebook..... none of it.  I call, I text, I peek at the beautiful worlds of the various farmers and homesteaders, friends, and national parks that I follow... I check the weather.  That's about it.  Podcasts will be the next step, I suspect (recommendations welcome). Baby steps.

Fall has been good to us.  We've gotten into our homeschool rhythm after the lazy days of summer, and third grade has been quite fun so far (more to come on that soon, I hope).  The garden is mostly quiet now, aside from a couple beds of greens and the flowers that won't give up even after a few light frosts.  That would be the cosmos, the marigolds, some texas sage, and a few holdout coneflowers, zinnias, and larkspurs.  The garlic is tucked in for the winter, I've cleared away a fair amount of the things that needed clearing out and away.  There is something about the fall gardening chores that feel so solid and comforting to me.  So tidy and hopeful.  We're giving thanks for all that was this season before, but also looking ahead to another season of growth and sustenance that we trust will come after a bit of a hibernation.  A hibernation that, as I age, I've come to really enjoy sinking into.

There's a fire in the wood stove now about as often as there isn't.  More snuggling with Ollie on the couch, more quilts on the beds.  Definitely more tea drinking.

Happy November, all.