Fall Creeps in On Little Cat Feet

Kitten feet, I think, 'cause it's coming very slowly. :-)

I've usually written in here several times by now detailing the approach of fall, but I've been a maniac this summer. Work has worn me to a slender thread—I'm having difficulty concentrating and the smallest things drive me mad. The few weeks of 90-100°F temps did nothing to help. This summer I had another palpitation episode that sent me to the emergency room and my acid reflux seems to be getting worse instead of better. I'm hoping fall may temper this nonsense.

I can't wait for it to get cooler again so I can take Willow out for walks on the days I telework. She's missed our lunch jaunts but I simply cannot take being out in the sun. The mildest reaction I get is a rash. I dream of cool breezes.

The signs of fall came early this year: Michael's had things up starting in June. I expect that in ten years the fall things will start coming out in April (which means, depressingly, that the spring material will show up in October!). Among the summer bushes were the oranges and reds of fall. Then one day I walked into Hobby Lobby and fall wreaths were lining the edges of the floral aisles and three rows were cleared for Christmas ribbon and picks. Back-to-school items and then scarecrows appeared at JoAnn. Then every week it was more.

A few weeks ago the fall issues of travel magazines appeared: Vermont Life, Midwest Living, Blue Ridge Country. The September Yankee appeared a week later and fall baking appeared on the cover of Southern Living—not to mention a fall entertaining issue of Cooks Illustrated. I'm an uninspired and bored cook, but I love CI for Christopher Kimball's delightful editorials about life in Vermont. This latest opened with

"There is a time in late October when, in the half-light before dawn, you expect that a few dim-witted bees will be lazing about the frost-stroked goldenrod, the upper pond will be glazed with a skim-coat of ice, and the October skies will look more like November, a northwest wind pushing a heavy gray sky."

If they ever publish a collection of Kimball's essays, I'll be in line to buy it.

And that sounds like a delightful day, too!