autumn twenty-ten

(P.S. still no frost...)

someone call al gore

There should not be so many flowers in the middle of October in Minnesota. In previous years we've had frost in September and it would not have been uncommon to have had snow once or twice by now, though it wouldn't stay around long. I remember a homecoming in junior high, a September event, where it snowed as we sat on the cold metal bleachers. This year we've had 80 degree weather in October.



We might have frost tonight, if we're lucky. I'm tired of this extended summer.

there is a certain slant of light

This dog is a genius.

lately

Lately, I've been making a lot of pumpkin pancakes.



They're made from my favorite pancake recipe, with a lot of pumpkin (or squash) puree and spices thrown in. These are not whip-up pancakes like buttermilk pancakes; they actually take a little while to cook with all the oats and I always throw them in the oven for a bit to make sure they're cooked through.



This is a pumpkin roll made from the famous recipe on the back of the Libby's can, with a few more spices added. (I love the Carl Larsson tray it is sitting on.) My grandparents were over for dinner to send off Anders on his new gig as a professional musician.



My parents didn't immediately warm to the idea of him dropping out of school to tour. My parents, charmingly provincial (in the best way) as they are, equate professional musicians with drugs and "fast women." They were eventually won over when they heard how much he'd be making-- it isn't a fortune, but considering the fact that people with bachelors degrees are having just as much trouble finding work as everyone else nowadays, and a music degree is more problematic than most, they came around to viewing it as a very good thing. I am just worried about whether or not he will keep his sanity performing that show every night.



I've also been sewing. More on this later.



OK, so I promised autumn pictures, but I don't actually have any good ones. I'd been admiring the trees etc. on the way to the gym every night but:

1. My camera is ancient in digital camera years, is NOT WYSIWYG and generally has trouble with low lighting.
2. I tried to take pictures through my sunglasses so they would turn out similar to what I was actually seeing-- I promise never to subject you to any other such artsy plans again.
3. I felt silly standing on the side of the road.

a short one

I have given myself up, body and soul, to the pursuit of applying to graduate school. Because things aren't nebulous anymore, I've also given up the lectures until the new year when I'll be done with the application process and can add randomly to my stash of knowledge. I'm looking forward to reading Waugh and Hartley and Saki, and watching Simon Schama's "History of Britain" all the way through in a marathon aided by knitting and baking pleasures, and going to bed without feeling like my entire future is being frittered away by sleep.

I want to get it all done before Christmas because I haven't had a really peaceful Christmas holiday since 2008.

Autumn pictures to come. It's all yellow, brown and red colorways in the trees right now, and immense golden fields with big round hay bales and combines driving around them. All this is picturesque until you get stuck an implement going down the road--taking up both lanes-- doing 15 mph.