tis the season...

The season when these guys begin to appear in lovely vignettes on the windowsills and countertops

When an unexpected gift of vintage goodies might arrive in the mail...(thank you mom)

And when treasures of old family photos held in the hand for the very first time feel even more magical and charged.

Can you feel it?

I hope your days are merry and bright, or dark and earthy, whatever you prefer.

I hope beauty and magic is whirling around you, staining your days with its hues.

nanojoumo

Even though I am again participating in Nanowrimo, I thought I'd play along a little with D'Blogala's Nanojoumo, wherein you journal every day in November. These are the pages I've made so far--they're very simple as writing to 50,000 words is on my proverbial front burner
. The prompts were Discover and Endeavor. Can you read the quotes? The first a quote by Paul Valery, which goes: "To see is to forget the name of what one sees." The second is from Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and goes: "Work lovingly done is the secret of all order and happiness." I'm not sure about the order part of that last one. In my opinion, work lovingly done frequently leads to lovely little messes. But I guess old Pierre and I can agree to disagree. I'm with him on the happiness bit.

Speaking of happiness, Liam has been playing with my camera a lot lately, which results in these kinds of shots.
I hope he finds glee in all his endeavors. I hope he will always work lovingly toward his dreams, leaving lovely little messes in his wake.

Halloween, 2009

Beautiful October

Busy days, lovely whimsical days. Recently Ireland and I met my mom in Port Costa to visit while exploring Wendy Addison's Theater of Dreams. Because I'm feeling quiet today, I thought I'd share some of what we saw...

Afterwards we drove to Benecia and had a picnic lunch of salad, keifer, olive hummus, crackers, and Honey Crisp apples. A beautiful day. An October blessing.

I hope your October is shaping up to be as fanciful and fun as a peek inside of the Theater of Dreams. I hope you find a fairy or a well dressed glitter goblin at every turn.

What do you get when you cross a pumpkin with a steamroller?

SQUASH!

Gulf Fritillary

This species of butterfly disappeared from the Sacramento area 40 years ago--and now it's back!

Thank goodness we planted a butterfly bush last year--it couldn't have been more timely, n'est-ce pas?

A little premature

Yes, it is only September, but our pumpkins have been awaiting a little sprucing up since we harvested them in July. And it's never too early to dress up like your beloved pumpkin, right?