Ode to October

October began as expected, with J's birthday, and ended in an unexpected way, with the second national lockdown in France announced.  In between there were a lot of beautiful leaves and time spent enjoying some beautiful places near us with people in the safest ways we could.  I am so grateful we seized so many of the October days.  Some were sunshiny and glorious; some were drizzly and grey, but now we have sweet memories of connection to carry us into November.  And the month we spend in intentional gratitude couldn't come at a better time this year.

October 1 - Eleven Years

October 2- The Beginnings of Change

October 3 - Around Town

October 4 - Friends who Read Together

October 6 - Apples Hanging over a Garden Wall

October 7 - I want to know everything about this house at the top of the hill.

October 8 - An Early Evening Walk (I got captivated by the streetlights coming on in our little town.)

October 9 - A Very Parisian Scene

October 10 - Picked Zucchini at a Local Farm

October 11 - When My Spring and Autumn Windowsill Collide

October 12 - I wonder which way the wind blows...

October 13 - Walks with the Most Patient Listener

October 14 - Bow your heads and pray...and snap a picture of your Zoom Bible study group.

October 15 - Sometimes the fishing line won't cooperate, and your Nitrogen 14 atom goes all wonky.

October 16 - Autumn Perfection

October 17 - Maybe our House's Peak Autumn Beauty?

October 18 - Has this restaurant seen an uptick or a downturn in business this year, I wonder.

October 19 - A Bright Spot on a Walk

October 20 - Listening to Him Tell Stories

October 21 - Are you tired of leaves yet?  I love this one.

October 22 - I walked in the park a lot this month.

October 23 - Paris in the Fall

October 24 - Outdoor Book Club Location

October 25 - It doesn't photograph well, but this sausage and lentil casserole was the perfect autumn meal.

October 26 - There was a nice moon for Halloween week.

October 27 - I love E's drawings.

October 28 - Taking selfies in Portrait Mode after President Macron's speech and trying to take it all in

October 29 - Aubergine Tart and Paris Cafe Lights

October 30 - Bedtime Reading

October 31 - 1 Hour of Outdoors Time

Le Grand Trianon

Visiting the palace in Versailles is a popular touristy thing to do when you visit Paris, and we wanted to give K.J.'s parents a glimpse.  They got the more intimate tour because our favorite areas are around the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon, and Marie Anotoinette's hamlet.  It's a great place to ride bikes, so while the kids and our husbands went on a cycling adventure  T and I went inside the Grand Trianon, a smaller palace commissioned by Louis XIV.  I love this pretty blue room!

It has been a few years since I last walked through the Grand Trianon, and I was excited to see the terrace again.  It opens up to gardens on the left and a courtyard on the right and is so beautiful!

There's something about that open, light-filled space with that black and white floor that is stunning.

My other reason for preferring this back corner of the Versailles property is that there are gardens with flowers and grass.  The more formal gardens are all shrubs and perfectly trimmed trees along straight dusty paths.  

Our intention was to walk through the gardens to the hamlet Marie Antoinette had built so she could play at life as a peasant.  Unfortunately, I have long had a bone to pick with arrows on French signs.  They twist and turn and point in directions that don't always seem to indicate the direction they want you to go.  All that to say, we took a wrong turn at a sign and missed the hamlet.  We were treated instead to gorgeous fall trees in a quiet space devoid of all other visitors, so we weren't complaining.

I'd be happy to be lost here any day of the week.

Four Autumns

Nearly every morning in North Yorkshire I would begin the day writing out thoughts and events.  I would look out the window of the conservatory, and my opening lines would always be a weather report.  This always made me laugh at myself because it seemed to be a consequence of living in England where so many conversations begin with the weather, apparently even conversations with myself.  So this morning, from my parents' couch in Alabama, I report that it's 23 F, but the high is predicted to be 49.  I'd nearly forgotten the great swings in temperature here.  (That's -5 C to a 9-degree high for my European friends.)  We've experienced all sorts of weather, all sorts of landscapes, and all sorts of cultures in the past few weeks.  We left the perfect autumn landscape and muddy boots in North Yorkshire.

In Paris we traipsed through busy city streets strewn with leaves, tried our meager French at the local bakery, and looked in beautiful shop windows too intimidated to go inside.

We arrived in Florida, stripping off layers as soon as we stepped out the airport doors.  The days were longer, the bread was smaller, and the kettle took longer to boil.  I came kind of close to pulling out into the left lane leaving the grocery store.

Then it was on to Alabama where somehow, the skies really are so blue in a different kind of way, and the southern pines tower over you like old friends.

Autumn, or fall, is beautiful wherever you go.