Playing Catchup

I've been wrangling two teenagers and a dog, doing dishes and laundry, driving the mom taxi, going to volleyball games and golf matches, trying to wrap my head around the hoopla that is modern Homecoming week, trying to navigate the stressful college selection process for the oldest, trying to figure out my new camera which I alternate between loving and hating, interviewing for a part time job at the local college, finishing my book and trying to write a relevant review and fighting a really snotty headcold. Oh and next week is our 25th wedding anniversary. We have no plans, mostly because I'm too tired to think that far ahead and I don't want to plan anything else. Our google calendar looks like a 64 color crayon box, and the greatest gift I can think of is not cooking anything and not doing dishes either. I imagine I am not exactly a hot date lately. My dad taught me to sing the old gray mare just ain't what she used to be and now I see the humor in that song as I sing it in my head when I feel overwhelmed.

Anyway, Nightwoods was a very satisfying read for me, because I loved the writing style, loved the characters, was very drawn into the story and did not guess the ending, not exactly. I hate when stories and movies are too predictable. I gained a lot of life philosophy to ponder reading that book, and I marked dozens of pages to reread and let it sink in a bit better.

The new camera is a high end point and shoot, the Canon G12, which is really heavy after my Powershot, and full of technomagic I don't quite understand. I'm enjoying the extra couple mm's of macro but I'm struggling with anything but letting it decide what to do on automatic, and it shoots more slowly than I had expected it to, but I'm still learning. Here's a few pictures from the past two week's walkabouts.

There is a chill in the air, and the gardens are eking out their last blooms as the trees are beginning to lose their leaves. I'm trying to pay attention, because I know the long season of browns and greys and whites will be here soon, and I'll be ticking off the days until the ground awakens again next Spring.

I've enjoyed visiting your worlds through pictures, and love that blogging lets me see the subtle changes in the seasons all over the continent and the globe.  Hopefully I'll see or think enough of interest to share here more often, as I admit to being a lazy and inconsistent blogger, especially when my life is crazy, which I expect is the new normal.  Also, hopefully I'll figure out how to work my new camera so it better captures what my eye sees, because there is something striking or beautiful around every corner.

Until then....