And we love that time of year: warm apple cider, gourds all over the house, pumpkin flavor in everything from pancakes to beer (being better in the first than in the latter); the leaves are brightening, taking on the hues of the dying summer; long pants, long sleeves, a warm dinner at night. No season is richer than the fall.
fall, photography We went for a walk a couple of days ago and passed this little chickadee playing in a puddle. He let us get pretty close, and he made us pretty happy, so we stopped to watch for a while.
nature, photography The Christmas cards have not yet been sent, and as we were addressing them last nght we realized that we were without our annual family photo. Now how did we let that happen? So this morning, with breakfast in the toaster and sleep still in our eyes, we snapped a quick few before Jon left for work. Calvin is still wearing his pajamas, in fact, they're just under his photo-op clothes.
12 days of Christmas, photography Like spring, the arrival fall is sometimes a matter of subtle finesse, and sometimes a more of a rude awakening. 
The overnight cold snap, demanding that we turn on our heat and collect all our lingering tomatoes regardless of ripening stage, was much a rude awakening. Today's high reaching into the sixties, with the sun bathing the harvest land in warm hues, was much more like finesse. Calvin and I walked to the library again today, visiting with our friends, the squirrels, as we went, and taking our lunch along with so that we could pick a resting spot on our way home. Calvin picked the gazebo in our little downtown park, and, before settling in, stopped by the bakery for fresh pretzels and tomato juice 
(the lady at the counter double and triple checking with Calvin that he knew it was tomato juice not apple juice, and my deciding not to enlighten her with the fact that he's only ever had and loved one of these, and not the one you'd expect). Cheese, bread, and apples enjoyed in the sun that, at its fall slant, was creeping in under the vast geometric roof. While there Calvin let me have a little fun with the camera and then, with that boundless three-year-old energy, took off frolicking through the green park space in the afternoon sun. And I could have no better thirty-plus-year-old enjoyment than watching that boundless energy from a reclined and relaxed position on a nearby park bench. The rest of the shots are in the October 2009 album.
fall, photography 