AUTUMN !

Well, mom and I didn't quite make it to North Texas this weekend. Our plans kind of fell apart at both ends so we settled for a drive out into the Texas Hill country, lunch, and a lemon meringue pie. So, our discarded plans and the fact that the Longhorns didn't have a game this weekend allowed the realization that it's autumn to sink in finally. You have to understand that the coming of autumn in Texas could be said to be more subtle than I'm used to, after all those years in North Carolina and Georgia.

This first picture, a promise of great color this year, is a blessing from the National Park Service WebCam at Purchase Knob, NC. When I was living in Marietta I used to monitor the Park Service's air quality websites every day first, to check out the weather in the mountains, and second, to help me plan when to drive up to the Smokies to shoot the fall color. I continued to check the websites from Fort Worth - just so I'd know how things were going back there - but got out of the habit when I moved to Austin. Autumn in the mountains has always been one of my four favorite seasons. It doesn't take much - any time of the year - to push me into "planning mode" for a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. I'll try to stay put long enough to finish this post.


These two pictures were taken in October 1971 in Tony's front yard in the Kenilworth section of Asheville. The picture above looks at autumn beneath my feet and the picture below, autumn overhead. (The unnatural juxtaposition of the two pictures was unplanned - I can't think of everything!)



This picture of autumn on the Blue Ridge Parkway is a favorite, not because the color that year was especially good (it wasn't), but because it evokes memories of an earlier time (the mid-60s) when friends and I were at this particular location, interrupting our hike on a snowy Parkway for an impromptu picnic. Spending time in places like this when the weather discourages most if not all other traffic engenders a proprietary bond that's hard to explain. So, even though this is my Blue Ridge Pkwy, I have been known to share it with several million others.

*****

I'll shift gears here and take this opportunity to wish Richard a happy birthday. This picture, taken in 2003, shows Richard in his natural habitat - his kitchen - preparing something delicious for his ravenous in-laws and their families. Anyway. . .

Happy Birthday, Richard !