October Mornings

It's October. That seems like a simple enough statement, but around these parts it is fraught with meaning. How did it get to be October? September was taking forever to get through, but October? It's like seeing purple loosetrife in the summer - when he would see it in bloom, my landlord in Boston used to say that summer was almost over. Of course, it was then only July. But as the years have gone by, I now see purple loosetrife in bloom and can be heard murmuring, "summer is almost over". Snow should be here soon.

We've had warm rainy weather for over a week now. Mornings have been gloriously foggy. Even though the wet gray gets to be a bit much, I like it this time of year as it often makes the leaves in their autumnal colors pop a bit as though they were under black-light from the late 1960's. The maple across the street by the Episcopal church turned its usual bright yellow, stunning against the fog. It has already lost most of its leaves. The church has been doing construction work fixing this and that and adding a small addition which will contain an elevator to its basement, scene of large tag sales. The tag sale usually held this weekend (Columbus Day) will have to be held elsewhere - in Dummerston.

The view from my balcony as the fog burns off and shows the colors that have started to arrive.

It will be a busy weekend. The just up the road village of Dummerston will also have its annual apple pie festival. They make thousands of apple pies for sale - and they sell them all, too. It must be a good recipe  And Newfane, a perfect picture postcard New England village, will have its "Heritage Festival" this weekend. And Friday night here in Brattleboro (oops, that's tonight!) will be our monthly "Gallery Walk", which is kind of an amusing name as most of the art galleries are gone. Still it can be a fun time. I may go.

Thinking about Newfane, I looked for my photos of that village's center taken one autumn years ago. Of course I can't find them at the moment. So here, not intended for this blog, are the digital equivalent of snapshots, taken two days ago. Over the next few days I'll try to dig out a few of my half way decent photos of the autumn colors from years past.

Two buildings down from my apartment, looking towards downtown.

Just around the corner from the red brick house in the shot above.

I love the porch on this house, one more block towards town and across the street from the next shot:

Our town Common. Teddy Roosevelt once gave a speech from that bandstand. 

In the meantime, as I've been writing this the sun has come out from hiding, the sky seems to be making an attempt at turning blue, I have the day off from work and have started thinking about a perambulation around town with my camera, and in a phone call she made to me about something else I just told my boss that I'll be retiring from my job around November 15th. I think it's going to be a good day.