No parties for me, no opportunities to get all decked out, trying to look my loveliest or most horrifying. Nope. Just a quiet Halloween Eve at home in my orange t-shirt and witch-hat earrings, catching up with the online world and listening for knocks. And after an hour of silence at the door, a small sports fan with eyes bigger than the rest of him started the trick-or-treat parade. He was followed by a group of three: vampire, princess, and butterfly. Then came the grim reaper to my door, and a non-costumed girl who complained to me whistfully that her friends were yelling "trick-or-treat" too loudly. Meanwhile, our local classical station is featuring a program of "the scariest music of all time" this evening to accompany the tricks and treats. It's fun! Happy Halloween, friends.
Halloween signals the end of one of my favorite months on the calendar, lovely October. For me, this is the month that has always assured me that summer is really done, that autumn's time has finally arrived, and that sparkling pleasant days and chilly nights will become the norm for a little while. It is the time of apples and apple cider, leaves crackling cheerfully under your feet, snuggling into a blanket on the couch with a good book for the first time in months, and really enjoying warm meals again. And it is the time of harvest. When a hard freeze was predicted last weekend, Husband and I went to bid our garden a fond farewell and harvested everything that was left. We dug up the rest of our carrots. We picked LOTS of herbs. We took every green pepper off of our plants, even the tiny ones (they still taste good). And we did not leave one tomato, green or otherwise, on our tomato plants. We're hoping that all the green ones will ripen inside. So now comes the next step: figuring out ways to preserve some of our veggies so we have garden yumminess in the cold, barren winter months ahead. I'm going to freeze some chopped up green peppers for things like chili, and I'd also like to make pesto with all our basil and freeze it. I don't know if you can freeze cherry tomatoes...any advice, anyone? We're trying to dry the oregano we harvested. And for the moment, we're enjoyng eating all the fresh veggies and herbs. YUM!
Busy days continue here at Brandy Hall. Husband's schedule is packed with a tough but good courseload, and lots of percussion gigs. My dayjob at McKinley Church and Foundation continues to be really busy but satisfying. I work with such terrific people! In my musical world, I'm working on putting together a very edited version of the Christmas portion of Handel's Messiah for my church choir to perform in December...I think it will be lots of fun. Things are going well, but once in a while, what I wouldn't give for an entire day off from EVERYTHING! I'm looking forward to our Thanksgiving travels to see my family in San Francisco because they will afford our first opportunity for real R & R in quite a while (it will be great to see family, too!).
Hope all of you are enjoying the busy-ness of fall. Make sure to take a few moments each day to savor a particularly spectacular autumn leaf (or whole tree), to admire the sharper, clearer angle of the sun, to breathe in the crisp air gratefully, to soak up the energy of this season instead of being drained by it. This is an amazing time of year. Enjoy a warm cup of apple cider and celebrate it! And enjoy that extra hour of sleep on Saturday night when we all "fall back"...you've earned it!
1 comment:
It is an incredible time of year. I'm soothing my chilled self with some hot tea and honey. As for the green tomatoes, why not fry them? Love fried green tomatoes and even if you are no longer in the south, it doesn't mean you can't enjoy some of it's wacky cuisine from a distance. Snuggle up and you two keep each other warm.
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