Pumpkin #8--Pumpkins are for Kids...

I suppose I could/should have posted some spooky image of a real live Halloween pumpkin, this being THE day, and all...

But I couldn't get THIS image out of my mind.

It's a picture--an actual photograph on paper and everything--that I took back in 1997.  We were having a pumpkin-decorating party on my sister's back deck.  All the family's kids were there...all those kids who now mostly have kids of their own of the age they were when this picture was taken.

The picture is of my niece, Miss Leah.  At the ripe old age of 5.  Miss Leah is now gainfully employed, rocking an apartment in the Northland (PDX area), living the life of a successfully fledged millennial.  

But a couple of days ago, she was hugging this pumpkin, lugging it to the table to join the party.

They. Grow. Up. So. Fast. 

Pumpkin #7--Soggy but Still Afloat

This picture is a souvenir from my whirlwind trip to Wisconsin last month.  A small touristy town not far from my niece's apartment was having its Harvest Festival the weekend I was there.  I had to attend all by myself in a rented car...but that's a different story.  However...

These pumpkins were all carved and ready for the "Pumpkin Regatta"that was to take place on Sunday of that weekend.  Yes...these huge pumpkins are carved into small boats and raced down the river.  Unfortunately, it rained so much overnight and the morning of, they were still bailing out their small watercraft while I was there.  I don't know if they ever actually got to the race, as the weather turned foul, blustery and rainy for the whole rest of the day.

***Note the "G"--for Greenbay Packers--on the green pumpkin in back.  Proof positive that I really WAS in Wisconsin, where life is ALL about the Packers.  :)

Pumpkin #6--In Honor of The Black Cat

Several years ago, the Universe decided that our lives required the presence of Black Cat energy.  Our back yard and greenhouse , then our garage, became the domicile of Bookie--the Neighborhood Cat.  

We lost Bookie back in July of last year...and I STILL miss him, though we have left that place behind, as well as welcomed a second Black Cat Spirit into our lives.

Pumpkin #6 is an image of the little shrine I keep in our living room, to honor the sweet spirit that left us..and who we will undoubtedly meet again...if we haven't already.

 

Pumpkin #5: Thank you to Raven

I'm putting this one out here to honor yesterday's ravens, guardians of our unlocked truck at the beach.  

We took the dog for her first trip to the ocean yesterday, and as we reached the sand after a block-long walk through woods and over stream, the husband turns to me and asks, "Did you lock the car?"

To which I reply, "No, I told you to lock it."

Husband trudges back to the parking lot to do the deed, fingers crossed that our error has not already been discovered by miscreants that haunt beach parking lots in search of just such golden opportunities.

I travel on with the dog, then turn around out of the fairly biting north wind and head back in the direction we came.

On the way, we meet up with the husband, who is heading back in our direction, but has lost his zeal for walking on the beach.  Could be that the act of almost running back to the parking lot has been more than his poor, gimpy feet can handle.

On the trail back to the truck, I hear a raven calling from the top of a tree along the path.

Husband says, "Yeah...he was guarding the truck for us."

Now, husband is NOT a particular believer in my spirituality.  In fact, most of the time, he looks at me with one eyebrow raised and kind of sidles away from me when I talk about my spiritual beliefs, trying to avoid the inevitable lightning bolt that his god has trained on me to smite me for my heretical un-christian path.

So for him to concede that a raven was protecting us made me stop and shake my head a little in wonder.

As we walked up the path, the  the first raven voice was joined by a second.  I leaned my head back and strained to see them, but couldn't get a glimpse through the dense branches of the fir tree.

When we were out of the woods and and it became obvious that we were heading toward the truck, the two ravens took off out of the top of the tree and spiraled away toward the east--the direction of my spiritual power.  

It was pretty magical.  And obvious.

Thank you, Raven.  Once again, the Universe shows me that I (we) are never alone nor forgotten.

Pumpkin #4

I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.  --

                                                               Henry David Thoreau

Pumpkin #3, Hot Off The Press

Just finished this one...

Pumpkin #2

Another fine fall morning in the Willamette Valley.  One of those rare days when we are not wallowing in fog until late afternoon when the sun finally breaks through.

I think I may need to get out on the road alone for a little mental health time today.

A lot of my emotional energy has been invested in bringing my niece out here and getting her settled in.  Yesterday, we checked another thing off the list: We got her a vehicle.  Now she isn't trapped in Junction, at the mercy of whoever has a car and can come and retrieve her for shopping and errands.
Though, to be fair, she's hardly had any peace since we arrived here with all her stuff in a UHaul truck a month ago.  When we haven't been dragging her one place or another, we've been drafting her for Cafe de la Rue work.  

Now that she has transportation, we'll have to start addressing her health issues.  There will be paperwork and OHP and Social Security to mess with.  Oh joy.  But we have to keep moving in a positive direction.  Can't stall out now.  

Today's pumpkin picture, taken in Chelan County, Washington last November:

Not all pumpkins are orange!  :)

First Day of the Rest...

Today is a good day.

I scored an all-time high on my Windows 7 mahjong game.

My inexplicably fucked-up right knee is sufficiently healed to allow me to do my puny 1-mile Leslie Sanson walk-at-home work-out (and, once again, I'm determined to build on this to a more respectable daily work-out...)

Big yellow-legs (the Cooper's hawk) visited my yard, posed prettily on the fence, and didn't catch anything (this time...)

I was treated to a several-minute concert put on by hordes of geese flying out to their feeding grounds this morning...made all the more special and ethereal by the low-hanging fog that separated me from the vocalists. 

So.

It's a week until Halloween.  Time to start posting those daily pumpkin pictures.  Or, at least, photos relevant to the season.  And maybe I'll add a word or two--inspirational or otherwise.  

Here's the first...combining two of my life's loves: Cats and Autumn celebrations!

Happy Fall!

Peace and Quiet

It’s a beautiful fall morning in my back yard.  The temperature is more sweater than coat weather.  There’s a bit of overcast that thins enough in places for the morning light to shine through and illuminate the rich fall colors of leaves and fading flowers.  Geese sailing across the sky in long, undulating skeins bark and yip as they float over the yard, heading east, for some reason this morning…perhaps that is where their favorite feeding grounds are located this week.

My “new” yard is pleasant enough.  I do miss marking the day I hear the first crane calls wafting over from Sauvie…  But there is plenty here in the outskirts of Eugene to satisfy my wild soul.  Geese of all shapes and sizes abound around here in the winter…much to the chagrin of farmers( and suburbanites who might  like to enjoy a poop-free walk in any of the local parks.)  And Finley Wildlife Refuge is only about a half-hour away…

As I sat outside with my coffee this morning, it occurred to me that there is one sound I DO NOT hear, here in my cozy little yard…and that I DO NOT MISS.  That would be the sound of the blunderbusses blasting into flocks of “game” birds over on the island, from five minutes before it’s really legally light enough to shoot, until well into the early afternoon. 

I’m sure there’s plenty of bird-murder going on in this area as well, but at least I don’t have to hear and cringe and frown at it while I’m sitting in my own back yard.

Something to be thankful for on this fine Autumn morning.    

October 16th

I once thought I didn’t have any expectations about marriage.  Going into it, I thought that the two of us were so naïve that we just…got married because we were in love, and that’s what people did when they were in love.  We didn’t really think about The Future, didn’t have an agenda.  Over the years, I’ve come to see that is…bullshit. 

Because of course we had expectations.  Mine were, at the very least, to have one person in the world who loved me in spite of my flaws; and to have a partner beside whom I would negotiate life, sharing the joys and the burdens.  I don’t know that I could have articulated that expectation 43 years ago…but its existence has become obvious.  Driven home by the fact that this is not what our marriage has turned out to be.

Not even close.

And I have no idea what HIS unspoken, unknown-at-the-time expectations were.  No doubt, much of them had to do with sex.  (He was only 20 when we married…)  He once told me, in the midst of one of our heavier arguments, that “this is not what I signed up for.”  So, evidently, his expectations have not been met, either.

Even so, we have endured.

We like each other well enough.  We’re comfortable together.  Our relationship, after nearly half a century, is as much habit as anything else.  We’re concerned for each others’ welfare…we have good times together.

We don’t fight as much as we used to.         

I was just about to write, “But that’s not enough.”

But apparently, it IS enough.  I mean, I don’t think either of us would be happier if we weren’t in this marriage…if we didn’t have what we do have.  That it is what it is will always make me sigh and shake my head.  But if I’ve learned anything in the six decades I’ve lived on this planet, it’s that not everything can be or will be exactly as we would like.  And believing otherwise leads to a life of anger, frustration…a whole Pandora’s box of negative emotion.

Sometimes, you just have to accept what IS and make the best of it.

So…

Happy Anniversary, us!   

My Favorite Color is....

It’s a beautiful first day of October here in Eugene.  The sun is shining, the air is crisp…it really feels like fall.  And, as we all know,

There hasn’t been a lot of rest for me since our big festival in August.  There just seems to be one important thing after another to address.  Working on the house, messing with the yard, doing another event, fixing the bus, a train ride to Wisconsin and a five-day return trip in a 15' U-Haul truck, to retrieve my niece…  

Looks like the concept of a life without sharing space with a family member in need is not going to apply to our “golden years” in Eugene.  But, you know, I’m okay with that.  Because family is EVERYTHING.  Take it from one who just returned from an 18-year exile away from the heart of the family.  And, even there, I was pressed into service for a family member in need…as it turned out, the needy family member was the one most responsible for my exile in the first place.  The Universe WILL turn logic upside down to get us to understand the things It wants us to understand…

I don’t want to address the goings-on in the US political arena just now.  Suffice it to say that it almost looks like we’re on the road to purging the evil from the White House.  But we have made starts and stops (mostly stops) in this direction several times in the past three years…so I don’t want to jinx it by being too positive about our ability to really make it happen this time.  Fingers, toes, eyes, every hair on my head, CROSSED that we have made the right steps in the right direction this time around.

So…anyway…Happy October!!!