October is crisp days and cool nights, a time to curl up around the dancing flames and sink into a good book. (John Sinor)
Here in Kentucky we’re wondering what happened to October. One day it felt like August at 89 degrees. Everything was damp with an excess of rain and plenty of humidity. I had to water Frankie down before we took walks to keep him from getting too hot. Then Mother Nature skipped over that great September and October weather and plopped us down right in November. The weather people even mentioned snowflakes.
Wait, just a minute. Snowflakes are okay when they are supposed to be here, but not the day after what felt like the last day of summer. I love the seasons. I want to live where we have seasons, but I want each season to have its turn. Last spring I had the same feeling of going straight from winter into summer heat. And now I’m missing October.
October is the opal month of the year. It is the month of glory, of ripeness. It is the picture-month. (Henry Ward Beecher)
I always love October when the nights turn crisp and the leaves turn golden and red and beautiful. We’ve had some cold nights in the last week but the trees are green. So far no frost has nipped the flowers, but that’s bound to happen in the next few days if the skies clear up. The air conditioner was running last week. Best throw another log on the fire now.
It’s great to kick through the leaves walking in the woods through the bright autumn sunshine or rake up piles for the kids to jump in. This year it’s muddy and time for boots. Perhaps the cool nights when Jack Frost shows up will paint the leaves yet, and November will be our October. The leaves will fall, golden or green. The seasons will change. Snow will come and then in due time spring will show back up with flowers.
But I suppose these cool rainy days make a great time to brew some tea and enjoy reading a few books. Or for me, it might be a great time to get a new story written. Perhaps I’ll have it autumn in my story and enjoy the beautiful trees on the Appalachian hills. My character can kick through the leaves and hear their crunch underfoot. She can go on a search for that perfect leaf turned red enough to rival a flower.
October is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations above them once again. (Hal Borland)
What do you love about October? Are you missing it this year in your part of the world?
Comments 12
October is here, so says the calendar, in this neck of the woods! Yesterday it was 85 and 81 at 9:00 p m! I’m looking forward to a cool down! 😊
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You could come visit this neck of the woods and be plenty cool, Karen. 🙂
I love the blue of the October sky. Maybe it is the same blue as other months, but not to me.
Author
Some of the October quotes I found had the authors agreeing with you, Jean Ann. They talked about the special blue of the October sky. We’re have clouds here, but maybe blue skies soon.
Absolutely loving this cooler weather – Indiana has so many wonderful small town fall festivals right now! What could be better than hunkering down with a nice hot bowl of chili and a great book??
Author
When you put it that way, Karen, this cooler weather does sound good. I was thinking today that it was soup weather. I’ll be getting my big kettle out to cook something this week. Maybe bean soup. Maybe vegetable soup. I made chili not long ago, but I could do that again.
I love the colors of fall, and wish it would last til the snows of January. Or better yet, all the way through until spring flowers. I’m not a winter person, even though the snow is beautiful. I’m like you, I hope we have beautiful leaves soon and some more warmer days to enjoy.
We went from air conditioning to heat in 48 hours…shorts to sweaters overnight. But as they say here in Kentucky, “if you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.”
Have a beautiful week, Ann. Many blessings.
Author
I’m ready to wait two or three minutes to take us back to that beautiful perfect October weather, Lavon, but I’m wondering if we may have to wait until another autumn for that. I used to hope it didn’t rain all through October so the leaves wouldn’t fall. This year we’ve had nothing but rain. Keeps everything really green. The lawn mowing people have surely had a banner year.
Yes! Here in NC we also went straight from Sept. to Dec. weather! One good thing though, this chillier weather should get these B-17 mosquitoes we’ve got ever since Florence blew through here. Yikes!
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My husband was telling me about those mosquitoes. He’d seen something about them on television. Some kind of mosquito that needs a hurricane or flood to show up. Not good at all, so a little cold weather might help that, Robin. I guess there’s good and bad to everything when you think about it. Allergy sufferers here are more than ready for a frost.
It was in the 80’s here in Ohio and then plunged to the fifties. At that time our fall maintenance on our furnace was done and it was found to be faulty,so we have to replace it. They removed the old one and when they opened the new one it was damaged. We have been without a source of heat for 3 days so we have been utilizing throws/Afghans during day and extra blankets at night. Also drinking hot apple cider and hot chocolate! We have survived and tomorrow they are supposed to install the new one. Hopefully all goes well.
Author
It would get cold just as you needed that new furnace. And then it was plain bad luck that the new one wasn’t good when they went to put it in. But sounds as if you’ve come up with some good coping strategies, Darlene. Wrap up in a blanket and warm your hands on that cup of hot beverage. Sounds good. Maybe you should have gone to movies to warm up or the coffee shop or the bookstore. I’ve heard of people doing that when their air conditioner went on the blink. Hope you get it all installed and warm that house up today.