AHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh, OCTOBER!

My favorite month of the twelve! A number of blogs I visit have stated it's theirs also. I'm in good company it appears.

I LOVE how the maples in OH and IL get to looking like giant McIntosh Apples on a stick, mostly red with low lights of green before the rains and wind knock their leaves from the branches. And here in CA some variety of tree I can't name in a neighbor's yard goes mostly brilliant yellow mixed with green, looking like giant partially ripe lemons alongside a shoebox cabin of a house.

I LOVE the smell of fallen leaves either baked by the sun or damp with rain and spicey blends of nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger added into the sweetness of oatmeal raisin cookies, apple pies and pumpkin pies baking or blended into hot tea or cider on a chilly evening. Speaking of chilly - just told Darlin' this morning it's getting to be chili season and I verrrrrrrrry MUCH look forward to him making some of his specialty next time he's here. PERFECT supper: Darlin's Chili, hot cornbread and a glass of cold milk and homemade apple pie for dessert. MMMMMMMmmmmmm - YUMMY!

Was watching the deer by the lakeside this morning and one of the young ones must have been enjoying the chilly morning in spirit as much as me. It was literally running circles around the two does and two other young deer and then sprinting North and back and then South and back again. Think I'm gonna mentally start calling THAT one, 'Zippy'! hehehehehe

Been thinking today about rules - who makes 'em, which ones are meaningful and which are just arbitrary, and whether or not it matters when you break some. I've confessed before I LOVE decorating and craft magazines and the TV shows of HGTV designers and almost all of them say the bedroom is supposed to be solely a restful place of retreat with no TV or desk & computer. I'm breakin' them rules.

In a mansion of a house with rooms for a library/study, den and rec room that would work nicely for me except I expect the rooms would probably be sparsely furnished and never become warm and cozy and have the lived-in and loved atmosphere I personally must have. I'm anticipating Darlin's younger son's family including wife, baby on the way and two young boys are likely coming here to live sometime after the first of the year and I'm thinking the 'community space' of the family room, dining area and kitchen are NOT going to be the ideal environment for me to write come their arrival. Sooooooooo, the Master Bedroom Suite is becoming bedroom, library/study, bathroom and sometimes escape television room for me. (I never could stand kid's tv even when I was a kid)

I figure if I do it now I can tweak it and by the time 'they' arrive I'll be used to it and maybe even love the coziness of it. If not - it's good practice for moving to a studio apartment should that eventually be my destiny, right?