It is wet and rainy tonight. The wind has been cutting into my sweatshirt as I walked a bit in the dark. The distant towns create a glow on a navy blue horizon and hint at civility. The promise of fall is stronger than it has been. It is a reality that goes beyond the warmth of harvest colors like brown, yellow, red and orange.
Tonight there is a willfulness in the air. A secret anger in the weather as if Fall is spiteful at being left so late in the year. It challenges the frailty of men and laughs in the wind as I hunch shoulders and cover my head with my hood. Tonight fall is a bully, pushing its way into time and my life. It dares me to try to keep warm and mocks my efforts. It sits and taunts, makes fun and laughs at my thoughts and what I have to say.
It belittles me and makes me feel small and worthless. It is a Fall that seeks to control, to drive me away, to drive me into a warm place.
When I am inside it will laugh and race up the hills and familiar haunts it has known so well from countless Falls loosed on the hills of home. Fall will swirl wet and dead leaves round like whirlpools of worthlessness. It will claim victory for the visiting team and crow in the moonlight a victory that it has claimed year after year, season after season.
Too soon it will be hushed like a cur dog, however. Too soon it will be crushed by the real giant - Winter. Winter will step into the valleys and claim present and place from meager Fall. It will tell Fall it is a mere transition, just a passing of time from Summer in all the green glory to Winter with pristine snowy whites and crisp frozen venues.
Fall dances in the streets tonight, but not for long, not for long.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Cotton Candy Foggy Morning
Cousins,
Sometimes I just need to share a sight or observation. I hope you don't mind my wanderin's this morning.
This week is the first week that I am really seeing fall's welcome approach. Bein' a mountain boy I look for the change of color and noticed it a while ago in sugar maples, crabapples an' a few oaks. They just hinted that it was fall, but with harvest in full swing most folks didn't notice much.
This week was different. Oh My Darlin' an' I had to scrape a hint of frost off windshields yesterday mornin'. We pulled another ol' quilt out a couple nights ago an' snuggled a bit deeper into our down pillows.
Tthe colors on the hillsides are not bashful now and are beginnin' to be show offs as they prepare for fall.
This is a season of plenty in the hills. Farmers an' regular folks are puttin' up canned goods, dryin' apples for fried pies this winter, dryin' beans so folks will have shuck beans on the coldest nights to warm their bellies an' hearts. Some of the fellers around an' about are startin' their huntin' season, ready to fill their freezers for the cold winter ahead.
What I will remember most, however, about this fall is a sight I want to share... I was goin' up a road the other day real early. Only a few folks were even steppin' out into the foggy dawn when I came down a hill into a little spot where several creeks come together in a field. There are a few trees, mostly walnut but a few sumac that are already bright red.
When I looked into the field the fog was thick an' had such substance. It was almost like the good Lord had poured cotton candy into that field an' was usin' them trees to wrap the cotton candy around. The fog just hung tight to the trees like it was somethin' sweet, a treat for the eyes if not the belly.
The sweet grasses were like Velcro, holdin' on also to keep the thick mist right there in that meadow. A couple timid does wandered through an' I spied them as they would lift their heads with ears like radar sets movin', ever movin' an' lookin' for danger.
No danger there, though. I wanted to stop an' walk into that misty meadow, feel the thick dampness in my nose an' lungs. Choke out the automobile air an' suck in the scent of sweet grasses, the dampness an' musky scent of deer an' feel the wet mist wrap around me like cotton candy.
I was jealous of them trees, dear cousins. Oh, to stand there and let the dawn dress me, to swath me in robes of clouds. How lucky they are, how blessed.
I then awoke from my daydream an' went on about my mornin's tasks. Happier (if that is possible) for the seein'. Pleased at the secret I spied.
I wonder how many folks passed the same sight an' didn't even look away from the road to see that pleasant vista? How many thought if was wonderful an' how many were displeased by the drive in the fog?
The beauty was in my eyes that frosty dawn. It asked me to tell you, "oh, stop an' looky, stop an' see".
Sometimes I just need to share a sight or observation. I hope you don't mind my wanderin's this morning.
This week is the first week that I am really seeing fall's welcome approach. Bein' a mountain boy I look for the change of color and noticed it a while ago in sugar maples, crabapples an' a few oaks. They just hinted that it was fall, but with harvest in full swing most folks didn't notice much.
This week was different. Oh My Darlin' an' I had to scrape a hint of frost off windshields yesterday mornin'. We pulled another ol' quilt out a couple nights ago an' snuggled a bit deeper into our down pillows.
Tthe colors on the hillsides are not bashful now and are beginnin' to be show offs as they prepare for fall.
This is a season of plenty in the hills. Farmers an' regular folks are puttin' up canned goods, dryin' apples for fried pies this winter, dryin' beans so folks will have shuck beans on the coldest nights to warm their bellies an' hearts. Some of the fellers around an' about are startin' their huntin' season, ready to fill their freezers for the cold winter ahead.
What I will remember most, however, about this fall is a sight I want to share... I was goin' up a road the other day real early. Only a few folks were even steppin' out into the foggy dawn when I came down a hill into a little spot where several creeks come together in a field. There are a few trees, mostly walnut but a few sumac that are already bright red.
When I looked into the field the fog was thick an' had such substance. It was almost like the good Lord had poured cotton candy into that field an' was usin' them trees to wrap the cotton candy around. The fog just hung tight to the trees like it was somethin' sweet, a treat for the eyes if not the belly.
The sweet grasses were like Velcro, holdin' on also to keep the thick mist right there in that meadow. A couple timid does wandered through an' I spied them as they would lift their heads with ears like radar sets movin', ever movin' an' lookin' for danger.
No danger there, though. I wanted to stop an' walk into that misty meadow, feel the thick dampness in my nose an' lungs. Choke out the automobile air an' suck in the scent of sweet grasses, the dampness an' musky scent of deer an' feel the wet mist wrap around me like cotton candy.
I was jealous of them trees, dear cousins. Oh, to stand there and let the dawn dress me, to swath me in robes of clouds. How lucky they are, how blessed.
I then awoke from my daydream an' went on about my mornin's tasks. Happier (if that is possible) for the seein'. Pleased at the secret I spied.
I wonder how many folks passed the same sight an' didn't even look away from the road to see that pleasant vista? How many thought if was wonderful an' how many were displeased by the drive in the fog?
The beauty was in my eyes that frosty dawn. It asked me to tell you, "oh, stop an' looky, stop an' see".
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Cold Weather
Yep,
Cold weather tonight.
Frost on the grapevines
Just tickled the windowpane.
Better
Snuggle deep
Down into your quilt
Sink into your feather-bed
Cold weather tonight.
Frost on the grapevines
Just tickled the windowpane.
Better
Snuggle deep
Down into your quilt
Sink into your feather-bed
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