Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Autumnal Quotes

I couldn't resist adding a few of these lovely "turn of phrases" on my beloved Autumn.


"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf's a flower" ~Albert Camus
"Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile" ~William Cullen Bryant
"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all" ~Stanley Horowitz
"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree" ~Emily Bronte
"No spring or summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face" ~John Dunne
"The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves" ~John Muir
"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house" ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Come said the wind to the leaves one day, Come o're the meadows and we will play. Put on your dresses scarlet and gold, For summer is gone and the days grow cold." ~ A Children's Song from the 1880's
"Summer is already better, but the best is autumn. It is mature, reasonable and serious, it glows moderately and not frivolously ... It cools down, clears up, makes you reasonable ..." ~ Valentin
"Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable forbiting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season,and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits." ~ Samuel Butler
"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn."~ Elizabeth Lawrence

Autumn has come.....

Autumn arrived yesterday and the world (well, mine anyway) rejoices!

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year...leaves change color, the air becomes cool and crisp, the smell of woodsmoke begins to fill the air and the days become shorter and the sunlight softer. Goodies like pumpkin bread are now in season and candy corn is available at nearly every store you care to visit.

There's more to fall though than meet the eye....or that I can describe. Its just a feeling of renewal I have every time my season rolls around. The rest of the natural world may be preparing for a long winter and hibernation, but fall is when I find I am not only the happiest, but also the most industrious and alive. I was married on the first day of fall even though it fell on a Wednesday that year (yes, I chose the date deliberately and would happily do so again should the occasion arise).

Its no wonder that my favorite holiday (Halloween) falls during this glorious season and that yellow, orange, green and brown are my favorite colors.

Fall is when I most want to be outside. I want to head out with my blanket and book, lie back and enjoy the peace that nature provides. It is a time of quiet reflection and tranquility, comfortable as a pair of old jeans. It is a season of snuggling into a bed piled high with warm quilts, sitting silent in a room watching the fire burn merrily and sipping a cup of your favorite hot drink or joining friends around a bonfire in the growing twilight, listening to the snap and spark and toasting marshmallows. It is fields of golden amber against a gloriously blue sky, and watching the spread of orange and red across the timberline, spread from the paintbrush of the Master himself. It is mornings of pearly gray fog rising over the lake and skies filled with the V of geese flying south.

Maybe I relish this season more than others because it is so fleeting. Autumn hardly seems to start and then snow is falling and winter takes over...locking us in month after month of brilliant white coldness. Spring melts so slowly into summer that the line between the two is blurred and summer slams you with an unrelenting heat where even your thoughts seem to run together in a melted slurry. Fall sweeps in, her skirts rustling as she dances in her short but sweet turn upon the stage.

I won't quote my favorite poem here as I have already done so in earlier posts but rather leave you with one from George Eliot: "Delicious autumn. My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

Oh that I were a bird! My imagination soars on wings that swoop through hidden valleys and over forests I will never see with human eyes, never forgetting that I am just a girl...one who is utterly and completely in love with Autumn and all it brings.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

So much to do

and no more time.

I am working this weekend trying to get the shelves ready for stock that is supposed to start pouring in on Monday morning. I've been here a little over half the day and am ready to call it quits for the day and decided to go see Star Trek since its now at the cheap theater. The first time I saw it we were in the nosebleed seats up front and this movie had so much going on that I know I was missing a lot of the action.

I had thought I'd come back for an hour or two after the movie but now I don't think so. I had planned something completely different for today that fell through and I just can't seem to sufficiently motivate myself to put in a full day here when I hadn't planned to in the first place. There will still be plenty of work for me here tomorrow, that's for sure.

I opened up the boxes of shelving material I had ordered 2 weeks ago and discovered that the company had completely bungled my order. The shelving strips won't fit the type of shelf I have so I looked at the box they sent and read "C-Channel Strips" when I asked for Lozier style. Then the wire peg label holders shipped were for the flip style, not the FISH tip that I need. Wow. The only thing he got right were the 2 rolls of blue plastic that was supposed to fit in the channel strips!

Ah well....the blue plastic snaps onto the shelves without the channel strips so I just made do. I left a message for the company to call me back Monday about returning these strips since I no longer plan to use them and to have them ship me the right wire tips (can't get around using those!) Unless I demand they overnight the right material there is no way I am going to have them in time for the grand opening but it really doesn't matter....its partially my own fault anyway for not opening the box as soon as it arrived a week ago to verify the correct stuff was sent.

I will, however, stop by WalMart on my way home because I need a long-handled window squeegie so I can have our windows sparkling the morning of the "Big Day". There is so much dust and cobwebs up there now that its disgusting. Thankfully we haven't been in here long so the blinds still look clean...I'd hate to have to scrub those down!

I swear everytime I turn around I see something else I should be assembling, organizing, cleaning or stocking....I'd better get out of here before I really DO stay for the rest of the day. Honestly, I am already over 50 hours for the week and will have at least that next week.....its okay for me to not have the shop sparkling today.

Scotty....beam me up. I'm done here.

Human Calendar

Was taking a break at work today (yes, I know its Saturday but we have our Grand Opening on Wednesday so I have been working mass hours this week and will be working the whole weekend). Anyway, stumbled across this.....its interesting but I can't see having it on my desktop....it would be a bit too creepy and distracting.

http://www.humancalendar.com/