Fall and Passing Time

It is really fall finally. This one short time I miss the high country--the golden aspens glowing like spilled sunlight in the gentle slant of autumn's light. I took this shot in Wolf Creek Pass (CO) two years ago.Flagstaff was pretty this time of year too. I really enjoyed the four years I spent there back in the late 60s.  We had a nice rain yesterday afternoon--the remnants of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Miriam sent a big surge of moist air our way and it gave us close to a half inch in a nice steady rain from mid afternoon through the evening. Today it is cooler--still mild and very pleasant-but a fall feel to the air. I hope we will have more fall storms to make up for the low rains this summer.

This is my favorite time of the year and I'm getting an itchy foot to get out and see some of the lovely country around here. With Belle, it is still kind of hard to arrange that, though, but I am going to see what I can do the next few weeks. I'm giving her three tramadol pain pills each twenty four hours now and that is keeping her pretty stable but she also sleeps a great deal and that would be hard for her to do in the car but maybe in the little wagon with the back seat down so there is a good flat area, she might be able to. I'll try a short trip or two and see how she does. But there is always next year if it has to wait.

I have to admit the time has kind of slipped away from me! I look around my room and realize I need to do some serious cleaning. It is amazing how the dust and fur accumulates! I took the bi fold doors off my closet and am working on a curtain for the opening. I did this in my old house in Whetstone and liked the results so have decided to do the same thing here and even convinced my brother it was a good idea! I did his curtain first--fabric that goes with some on the pieces on the big railroad themed quilt I did for him a few years back! He gets impatient if they don't slide easily so I found some hooks meant for shower curtains that have rollers built in and they work great! I'm such a weirdly creative person that I like the challenges of figuring out how to get around a problem in odd ways. Like how to attach these hooks to a pair of curtains that did not have the built in eyelets or 'button holes' of most shower curtains. I found out that one part of some metal snaps--like are used on a lot of western shirts etc. would work very well and the wire part of the hook slid right through the little hole! So that worked out well. I felt smug solving that problem!

Mine will be a little different and I'll use some curtain rings with clips that I used on some of the window treatments in Colorado when we moved up the street in July 2009 to a house with many big, bare windows! The curtains will be tan, matching the sheets I use a lot and have a band or two of southwest stripe fabric for trim--like the window curtains which are chambray blue (like other sheets) with a band of red "Indian" print near the lower edge. I have bought few curtains in my life--it is more fun to make them and have just what I want. Yes, the old Sinatra song is kind of my theme--I did it my way!

I have the house to myself for a few days. Charlie made up with his lady friend and has gone over to Carlsbad to help her move from a rented little shack of a house into a brand new condo=apartment. Of course I am dog-sitting and have the radio blaring. My CD player and the cassette player are both bad order so I'm reduced to the radio only. Yes, I am pouting a little! I guess I will have to go on eBay and see what they have in bookshelf stereos since I am not going to MP3 and stuff just yet!! I even have a lot of old LPs and like a lot of hard core music aficionados I still like the sound there, even with a bit of background noise and less purity than digital recordings. They had a warmth and life that 'perfect' doesn't quite give. So for now it's the radio or silence. :-( I will survive!

The sun is shining even if there was some fog this morning. It was kind of neat when it drifted over me when I was walking the dogs! I got a few minutes of Ireland or some misty isle in the distance of fantasy. Quiet, cool and silky moist sliding by us. Here in the desert that is a rare treat! So one more day and the first of my favorite months will be over...and the second will be here. October's "bright blue weather". That sounds silly as weather is not blue and not even really bright yet that phrase has a special magic and the air and sky will be bright and blue, proof that I am 'home' in the desert--and a week from today will be the 1st anniversary of the first night in this house! I can hardly believe it's been that long! It's good to be home though.