Fall Rebound

 This year winter is basically that kid in your college anthropology class who coasts most of the semester until a week before the final, pulling all-nighters and handing in the last four overdue papers to secure that solid 1.9 GPA. We’ve had more “weather events” in the last two weeks than we’ve had all season. I think I speak for most of us who live here when I say: the thrill is gone.

I continue to play along, out for walks slopping around in the slushy, sleety, slurry gunk that has accumulated from these layered storms—snow, freezing rain, sleet, back to snow—like some kind of disgusting meteorological Trifle. I keep my eyes peeled for sneaky beauty like the mirror image of stark trees caught in a frigid glassy river. Uggh, why do you have to be so pretty and also the very worst?! I think as I take a few photos and try to feel my toes.  

Some people just leave. And I don’t mean your Nana and Pop-Pop who make the annual pilgrimage to Coral Gables where the pickle ball courts never close and the golf cart batteries are always charged. I mean the ones that go from scrolling tropic resort deal sites to mechanically clicking the link as if in some kind of seasonal fugue state. They blink to find themselves on a chaise lounge overlooking turquoise water and swiping a plastic card for a drink that is basically a blender with a straw in it. I am not judging. I’m jealous. It means there’s still hope for you. You haven’t gone full New Englander and felt locked into a battle of wills with the season, feeling personally attacked every time your weather app is just one of those igloo emojis with a minus sign next to it as a personal attack.

While I wait around for my annual fling with spring (that walk of shame is always worth it. Always.), I’m rebounding with fall.

It’s hard to believe this was just a few months ago when the world was drunk with color and light-Nature’s Mardi Gras. Take all my damn beads, fall! WOOOOOOOOO!!! Or, you know, stare quietly at this stunning display of hues until it burns itself into your retinas. Either or. ©SheilaMoeschenPhotography

These leaves look so much like shiny hard candy I was tempted to lick them on the spot. I did not and the woman walking her dog not pictured here was greatly relieved. ©SheilaMoeschenPhotography

The only thing better than a happy street bathed in butter light on a fall afternoon is one that is home to a wonderful neighborhood bookstore. I doubt anyone would have minded or bothered me had I laid down on that warm sidewalk like a happy, durpy book dog. (Yankee Book Shop in Woodstock VT-visit when you can! ©SheilaMoeschenPhotography)