Scraps of Joy

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby

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Hello Friend,

Welcome, welcome! So good to have you drop in.

Our library is bright with October light, and the couch in there is quite inviting just at this moment of the day. So please, come in and have a seat.

We have Mom’s delicious zucchini loaf to sample today. Will you have a slice? I like it as is, but there’s butter if you prefer to add it . Let’s see, I have a couple of choices for tea today: English Breakfast Tea, and Lemon Ginger sans caffeine. Which is your choice? Cream, sugar, and honey are there by the window, if you like.

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Here in our corner of the world, we are having prolonged good weather. Isn’t it wonderful? The leaves are turning colour, falling one by one and in bunches, crunching underfoot, but the days are not cold and icy like many past Octobers. They are astonishingly warm, and the morning light seems to make the remaining leaves glow from within.

Yesterday, as I passed the kitchen window, I watched leaves fall. Only, they didn’t just fall. Like hundreds of orange and yellow feathers, they drifted on the breeze from the little poplar wood into the open air behind our house. And I collected them up in my memory.

This is our first October in our new home in the country, and one thing I’m loving about this time of year is that I can clearly see the sunrise through the trees. October opens new horizons doesn’t it?

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October is a fallen leaf, but it is also the wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hill once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above that hill once again.”

Hal Borlan – This Hill, This Valley

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Maybe my expectations of October are a carry-over from the days when I was raising three busy girls. Then, Septembers held the rush of new school supplies, classrooms and teachers, new after-school activities like swimming, dancing, and piano lessons. Those beginnings butted up against finishings, like harvesting the garden and putting away summer. And all of it kept us almost too busy to think, so that when we rolled into October, suddenly routines and rhythms would fall into place as if by magic.

I’ve been expecting the same of this October. But it’s not the same, and it’s been making me anxious and a little frustrated that I can’t seem to find a rhythm in this new home. People keep telling me it takes time for rhythms and routines to untangle after a move. A lot of time. And I need to give myself a little grace.

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I took our swiss mountain pup for a walk in the little poplar wood where the path is a carpet of brown, orange, and yellow. Pup snuffled here and there, her nose pushing through little mounds of leaves, while my footsteps shuffled and crunched along the path. Through half-bare trees I could make out the neighbour’s shed, and another roof beyond.

Pup abruptly stopped snuffling and perked her ears. A car door slammed and I looked up through the trees to see that Mom & Dad had returned from shopping. The little dog would have bounded through the underbrush to greet them had she not been on a leash.

I called through the clear quiet air, “I’m just on a walk! Be there soon.” They peered in my direction and responded, “Ok” before heading into the house. The house. It looked different from this new, opened-up perspective.

Life is continually changing. Sometimes it changes in such small incremental ways that we hardly notice it, and at other times the change is big and shocking and it takes several breaths before we can catch up. I think that must be where I am now. Trying to catch up after the sheer work that this move involved.

So while I catch my breath, I’ll remind myself to enjoy this new October. The sunrises, the leaves, the new horizons. Maybe by next October I’ll have found my rhythm. I’ll keep you posted.

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My beloved October has returned-with its brilliant colors, cool temperatures and sunny, cloudless, azure skies, and I must enjoy it before it escapes for another year.”

Peggy Toney Horton – Somewhere in Heaven My Mother is Smiling

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Thanks so much for visiting today, I hope you enjoyed the zucchini loaf. Stay safe out there and see you next time.

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Mom's Zucchini Loaf

1 c. oil
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs, beaten
Beat until light and fluffy

Add:
2 c. zucchini, shredded

Mix:
3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/8 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
Add to zucchini mixture and beat

Pour into loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

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Featured Image by Valentin from Pixabay