You’re going to be 15 next week…  How fast the time has flown! I remember the moment you entered our lives, my advanced Christmas present. You had lots of spiky black hair, you were so precious and beautiful.  And tall.  You were already a tall baby, now looking down on me from your 5′ 11″ I’m the one feeling so small.  The doctor told me to expect you to still grow in the next two years.  Oh! My!  My clothing budget can’t follow your growth!

I’ll be honest, I don’t have much to write about at this time.  I haven’t taken any new photos in the last two weeks (well, I did, but they’re still in RAW and unedited, sleeping in my memory card). I’m busy as can be at work and my little athletes are going on strong.  Arenas and gymnasiums are where I hang out. It’s either freezing cold or steaming hot.  Mostly, these days, you’ll find me knitting, crafting or reading.  I have knitted myself a new cowl/hoodie combo and might just knit a couple more to give as Christmas presents.  I’ve also made bookmarks with some of my work, a weekend crafting project that turned out really nice 🙂  Oh!  And that book, The storied life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin was such a lovely read.  Short, sweet and beautiful.  Now, I’ve started reading the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri, so far so good!

Here we are, at the end of October.  That means autumn is well on it’s way out already, at least the glorious part of it.  Trees are almost bare now, and can you believe that (no, I’m not going to say the S word!) fluffy white stuff is expected this weekend?  I still enjoy walking in the woods, now that leaves cover the ground, but they’ll soon turn to a greyish-brown matter and, as nature rules it, they’ll become part of the whole renewing circle again.  November is by far my least favorite month of the year, though I absolutely love the color grey, when all my environment turns to that particular shade of dull, sleepy and cold grey, I can’t wait for it to be covered in white.  I could just skip right to December!

I love this poem from Paul Verlaine, Chanson d’automne, in it’s original French version of course.  It goes like this:

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon coeur
D’une langueur
Monotone.

If you’ve been following my work for a while now, you know I love apples!  I love baking and eating them, picking them, and especially photographing them.  So, with autumn rolling in, I decided to treat myself to some apple picking.  All by myself.  It was a beautiful end of summer day, warm and sunny.  I went on a week day to avoid the crowds, so I could stroll leisurely in the orchard.  I decided to use my much neglected Lensbaby for the photos this year, so I could add something different to my “apple portfolio”.  Yes, I have that many apple shots I could have a dedicated apple portfolio!