With exquisite timing, the weather turned just after Labour Day. It had threatened to do so earlier--in fact, I'd turned off the AC Sunday in anticipation of not needing it again until next year and was forced to relent that very afternoon. But it's been consistently under 20°C since yesterday evening and that's where it will stay for at least a ( Read more... )

Sunday may well turn out to have been our last nice day of the year. It's been cold and grey this week, but I was hoping it was only a spell and the weather would turn. Today, however, it's snowing and it feels like winter is really here ( Read more... )

Today's depression caught me even more off guard by coming on the heels of a delightful weekend. Sure, Sunday I was moody and draggy, but that's typical when I've been out late. It usually doesn't carry over into the week ( Read more... )

On a lighter note, we're now in the pretty part of fall. Still not much colour; only the locusts and some maples are beginning to turn. But as compensation a lot of fall and late-summer flowers are still in bloom. The days are cooler, if not always drier, and I've tried to respond by walking more ( Read more... )

First order of the day was reporting to my doctor's office for tests, a flu shot, and retaking of my blood pressure. After fifteen minutes meditating in a quiet room I got it down to 111/86, which isn't great, but which does give me a pretty clear path forward for reducing it (in addition to getting back into the habit of exercising regularly again ( Read more... )

I spent a lot of time with the moon this weekend. The Mid-Autumn Festival fell on Saturday, but the astronomical full moon was Friday, so I went to the shore both days ( Read more... )

At some point after leaving work a week ago Wednesday, I noticed that I was sneezing more than usual. It flashed through my mind that it could be the first sign of a cold, but I've been wrestling with allergies so much this past year that I didn't really have any clear symptoms. So I blithely ignored it and even went for a vigourous walk after ( Read more... )

Last night, on the assumption that I was developing something of an emotional boil, I lanced it by watching the opening to Up and sobbing hard for about ten minutes. I'm not sure it did the job. I felt tired afterwards, so tired I almost fell asleep sitting up again, but there was no euphoric sense of relief ( Read more... )

Thursday morning I did the last of the gardening for the season--and by that I mean I took last-minute measures to spare a couple plants from the impending hard freeze. The geraniums came in and the perennial mums went in the soil, in the same spot where mums have died two previous years. (A gardener pal says those might not have been perennial but ( Read more... )

Here it is, the fall I've been waiting for--just one month later than usual. I'm going to arbitrarily say the foliage is peaking now even though quite a few trees are still green. That's been pretty typical over the last decade: We don't get early frosts any more so the colours don't clump; each tree just goes when it's ready. And it's not like ( Read more... )