Kathleen's Korner at TheStidhams.com

After the first hard frost, if there were still leaves on the trees — the big-leaf maples, my medlar, the quince and others — they turn bright, lemon-yellow.  And they seem to rejoice in this last burst of color before the trees begin their hibernation.
Driving along on a day like today, when the sky is gray and dripping silver threads of liquid sunshine…  the world more than glows, it radiates, it beams, it hugs you with its mantle of light.

In a few more days, with the wind and the rain, the remaining leaves will have rusted to a burnt sienna, and then they will be gone, leaving the silver-bare peeking through the dark green cedars and firs…  with bits of rosy-brown from willow branches in the riparian zones.

But for now, the medlar brightens the living room, casting warm highlights on all the  clothes that need folding…

always happens it seems

you wish for rain

and then it appears and you are glad to see it

but after a while you’ve had enough and you wish

like anything for the sun to break through

and the ground to dry

and the rain keeps falling

and swelling the rivers in the the ditches

creating water wings on every passing car and truck

We are at “near” record rainfall levels, and may in fact set true records for flooding in the next few days.  Over 7 inches of rain in Olympia since Friday over 10 inches in that time in Shelton.  We live in between.  So we have had enough.  Unfortunately, it isn’t cold enough to fall as snow in the mountains.  Hence the record flooding possibility.  And this means that, while the roads and all are really clean again…  we will need lots more rain to make up the snowpack we depend on to feed all our aquifers through our long dry summers.

Well, the poem was a bit sappy.  You can’t win them all!

It was cold again overnight.  When I went to pick up one of the children from his Halloween celebration with a friend’s family it was very cold.  By the time we got home, it was freezing…  Not much left now of the dahlias, just a few of the tougher stalks and the gooey slime where leaves used to be.  Same with the tomatoes. 

A few light clouds are teasing the sun this afternoon — perhaps we will have some rain in the next 24 hours — cloud cover to keep us warm. 

The Halloween decorations are put away for the year, the candy stashed in various locations…   the cobwebs will be the next to go, though after I finish drinking my tea.  No need to be obsessive!

My house is a mess.  Despite my good intentions over the summer, and in the weeks since school began again for the children, I have managed to get through only a few small boxes.  I have spent my time in other pursuits — costume making, visiting with folks, dreaming.  One dream I have is that I will be able to keep two steps ahead of the laundry, the dishes and the dog hair on the floor.  Two out of three most days seems to be my limit.

Reality is that my energy level continues to lag considerably.  When my routine is upset I have trouble getting the basic things done.  I can get things done — I just have trouble. 

AND I am choosing to create a new reality:  I am going through a stack of papers and books today, and clearing 2 square feet of table space next to the sofa.  I am taking the children to the Tacoma Art Museum after the trumpet lesson is over.  I am going to get the load of kid clothes from the dryer folded and distributed before I leave.

So I’d better get cracking, only half an hour to go!