Well, well, well...

While the Thoughts part of this blog is going strong, the Life part is also, unfortunately, going strong. We are in the high part of summer here in the good ol' midwest, which means barbecues (where we don't eat BBQ but instead feast on burgers and some incarnation of something covered in Miracle Whip), Family reunions, and humidity. Thankfully, this year the last one is taking it's sweet time getting here.
Hubby's sister is coming in for a week next week, and we rarely get to see her, so it will be nonstop fun. Okay, maybe we'll stop now and then, but mostly I'm hoping it's nonstop. Other than that, we're prepping for abovementioned Family Reunion (it really does have to be capitalized...it's that fun and cool) of Hubby's side of the clan this weekend.
Other happenings:
Visits from friends who have moved out of state....
Emergency mulch deliveries from my parents (Hi, we're coming home with a trailer load of much, do you want some?)
Getting our house painted (because it REALLY needs it).
Buying a pool for Toast. That's not the exciting part. The exciting part is getting it home in my Honda Civic.
And generally trying to sort out life, as we all do, on a daily basis. I'm feeling a little, well, stuck lately. I have a million things I want to do, but no inspiration for any of it. I'm feeling more of the "I can't" lately than the "why not". It's adding extra annoyance because it's been so positively beautiful around here that it's perfect for playing and drawing and going to the park and all matters and sorts of summer activities.
I"m going to get right on that.

Fall

I have always loved autumn. It's one of the reasons I like living in Michigan, because the colors here are spectacular. Sure, it's no eastern Seaboard, no tiny town in Vermont surrounded by mountains, but it's what I love. I love the light that comes with autumn...the sky looks different, it's bluer somehow. The sunlight is different than in the middle of summer. I know the scientific reasons for this, but still it never ceases to amaze me to look outside my window and see that perfect golden day that happens every October or so...the one that makes you think "I'd like to wear corduroys and go to the cider mill today".

The house we live in now has an added advantage. This tree, above, is just magnificent in the fall. Seriously, on a cloudy, rainy day the thing practically creates it's own light. It's a Japanese Maple that was here when we moved in...and given the landscaping disasters the previous homeowners left us with, I seriously doubt it was their doing.

Living in our neighborhood presents a sort of game with Mother Nature every fall. We are surrounded by trees here. Lots of them. Our yard consists mainly of Oaks, which are beautiful and provide a lot of shade. They also hang on to their leaves like noting I've ever seen. So every year about this time we start to wonder...should we rake? If we rake too early, more leaves fall and the leaves in the yard to the north of us always blow onto our lawn...meaning more work. If we wait too long everything gets wet then snowed on and the job in the spring is tantrum-worthy. After four years, I'm starting to learn how things go. Trees start to turn. Then the Japanese maple turns and is a brilliant red-orange for about three days, then some big windstorm comes along and it loses all it's leaves. Then this will happen:
These are our burning bushes. They are just starting to "burn" right now. I've learned that if we wait until they are totally red before starting to rake, we're pretty safe. If they've dropped their leaves, even better.
That is, of course, if it doesn't rain....which is another problem entirely.