October - A Look Ahead

The month of October is one of my favorites in the calendar year. The trees put on a colorful display, the weather improves significantly, and the cottage’s HVAC units take a needed rest. We won’t be traveling this month, but perhaps we’ll take a brief jaunt or two through the countryside to view the seasonal changes. Except during rainy weather, we’ll be enjoying our front and back porches several times a day. We’ll either be settling into rocking chairs with a street side view or glider chairs with a woods view.

Wild deer are regularly visiting our backyard for the past week, including young fawns. They are like four-legged Hoover vacuums, feasting on acorns that have fallen from the large oak trees located on the edge of the woodlands. While finishing up our own breakfast this morning, we spotted four deer partaking of their version of granola: nuts, grass, and leaves. We never tire of watching them and admiring their graceful beauty.

Our neighborhood is bustling with activity this month. The house construction across the street has finally ended! It is being showcased in the local Parade of Homes for the next three weekends. So we’re starting to get a lot of traffic on our normally quiet street circle. I will have a final post about the house soon and show you how it turned out.

Mr. Jim continues to build up his strength and stamina. The next phase of his treatment will commence this month. It will be a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. We will be consulting with the new chemo doctor and a radiologist this week to find out the regimen details. Please continue to keep Mr. Jim in your prayers, asking that the treatments do their cleanup job well and also that he doesn’t experience any uncomfortable side effects.

I have recently been preparing for the next A Personal Photo Challenge (October 12), and it hasn’t been pretty. The theme is “food photography.” If you are a participant and have been suffering with your photo shoots, please be assured that I am in the same boat. I had emptied the refrigerator at one point, scattering food items throughout the kitchen and in the dining room. After much angst, I decided to set up the shoot on our dining room table because it was the most comfortable. The lighting in there isn’t optimum, but I decided it is good enough since I am using poster board reflectors to bounce light into the shadow areas. I adore our cottage, but its design does not provide an abundance of natural light inside. The best room in our house for a tabletop photo shoot is actually our guest bedroom on the second floor. But I decided that I didn’t want to make a dozen trips up and down the stairs.

I also discovered during the photo shoot that I have very little talent when it comes to food styling. I can’t seem to translate into reality very well what I envision in my head. There is no danger that Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart Living will contact me anytime soon for a photography gig, that’s for sure!

There is a very long list of blog topics on the back burner, waiting for me to compose posts. With our lives still in a topsy-turvy mode, I’m not going to plan out my posts this month. They will be whatever strikes my fancy at the moment and whenever I can spare some time to write. But you can be rest assured that there will be some pretty (non-food) images along the way!