“This is my foliage photo for this year. I guess I got exhausted by how great it all was. I finally realized that so much splendor can hurt a bit, too. The build up is an annual falling-in-love, of sorts. When you feel so seen & heard by “the other”, that you become delirious, insane, clingy, hopeful, and paranoid, while driving around. Which is why I instead, look ahead to November, which tends to offer no promise besides more extreme conditions of cold, and hardship. I find this much more manageable. But I figure I’ve developed this over a lifetime of messy weather that inconvenienced me in the extreme. Why wouldn’t I be fonder of the tried and true? You will be snowed in, you will suffer with many decisions regarding traction, you will not always be warmed by a quaint, aromatic fire of dry maple, spiced with the lofty fragrance of cedar boughs. You will instead, be tested, constantly. And if it is to be believed that adversity builds character, by God, you will be blessed with character, and able to entertain a room full of cats, dogs, pet goats, children or lost travelers, at a moment’s notice. Your rubber boots, will be cherished, as will be your snow shoes, and your ice cleats. Ah, but the foliage this year! So classic, so unabashed to be magnificently one-of-a-kind as any yodeler. I feel lederhosen gripping my body like a Swiss cow and a von Trapp kind of flourish of song rising within me, directly from the Austrian Alps into my local general store area. There’s a new bread baker in town, called “Rainbow Chicks”, and these changes that come to the store, feel as momentous as the changing of the leaves. And just as these mild fall temperatures will succumb, my own life seems on a downward roll into winter seclusion, and separation from the gregarious chapters of summer. My friends will scatter, and in their place, stolid inches of snow flakes upon frosted field grass will grow, and the emptying of the apple tress, become complete. No more bear vomit, no more cider making. Just the heavy sleep of winter. And what a sleep it is, for those who are dreamers, and want to dream. My cup will be full ... of what, I don’t know yet. But if you are looking for the smallest door opening into the largest room, please dial my rotary phone. Answering, is what I do. Sometimes, to my detriment. ”
