The Tale of Two Cities- Part 2

Several blogs ago I mentioned my incredible luck of having trips planned to two Portlands.  I was able to jet west to see my much-missed cousins, and now, as of tomorrow AM, I will be jetting east to my much-missed grandchildren.  Both trips equidistant, and both able to transport me back to the flora and fauna I know and love.  Oregon was all green and overflowing with abundant plant life and the Northeast, in Oct, should be all gold and vermillion, scarlet and electric yellow, depending on which trees will be turning.  I can’t wait.

I know people who say they fall prey to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) during the winter months, and I think I can begin to sympathize with them.  Texas, and its long hot summers that continue well past the time my internal clock says it should be cool, seems to create my own “misplaced New Englander” kind of funk.  But here comes a chance to counteract that. 

I am flying to Rhode Island, with one day to get to Cape Cod and, with luck, get a glimpse of Tree swallows that mass on the dunes by the thousands in the fall and pick wild cranberries and see old friends.    Then the continued delight of linking up with one of my daughters as we drive from Boston to Maine, perhaps by way of color-splashed New Hampshire.  Then for the remainder of the two weeks I can be a part of the wildness that is life with 3 children under the age of 5.  And if my SAD isn’t gone by then, well, there will be no hope for me!

So, although I can’t imagine any time to blog while doing all this, I hope to refill my “blogability” column with new topics for my return.  And by then Texas will have cooled down.  For that matter, we actually had a cool front pass through this weekend that dropped us from 90-50 in a matter of hours, perhaps the same one that was dropping snow all over CO. 

I hope your Fall is taking place in the tradition you are used to; different seasonal changes in different places.  TX actually “springs” into fall, with a return of flowers when the rains come and a feeling that Easter must be in the air, or does the omnipresent barbecue smell mean it’s the Fourth of July, or the heat imply it is still August?  Well, at least for the next two weeks may my October feel as October used to feel, crisp and colorful.