Post by bellbottoms on Oct 20, 2023 14:30:45 GMT
Fall is normally my favourite time of year, but unfortunately I’m just not feeling it this year. I’ve been trying to enjoy it as much as possible, getting out for walks on the nice days to step on crunchy leaves, trying to take in the sights and sensations that I typically find comforting this time of year, but some unfortunate circumstances are just casting a shadow over everything.
This is the first year in 10 years (other than 2020, but that was just different) that we weren’t able to take our annual “campsgiving” trip with our best friends. Typically this involves renting a cottage on a lake on the second weekend of October, which is Thanksgiving here, and having lots of campfires, going on walks, canoeing, going to fall fairs and farmer’s markets, and making and eating a metric fuck ton of great food, and just being with our “chosen family” of dearest friends. Sadly, one member of our core group is undergoing treatment for a scary diagnosis and has to stay close to home until that’s finished. There is no fall cottage/campsgiving without her. So we’re sort of hoping to do a winter cottage type of thing instead, but no plans are in the works, and things just feel doomy and gloomy around here.
Might also be because my company also just let go a lot of really great people this week. There were rumours and whispers for about a month, and I didn't want to believe it, but it has come true. I'm grateful to be one of the lucky ones who gets to stay, but it really feels like a different place now... a bit post-apocalyptical even.
Despite these circumstances, I’m trying hard to just enjoy the little things anyway. I’m not drinking much alcohol these days so instead of diving into whisky season as per usual, I’m enjoying pots of hot tea (not pumpkin spice, there are just so many other better flavours).
One of the things I appreciate most about this season is watching the large maple in my backyard go through it’s big show before the big snow. It tends to be a late changer, so while the rest of the trees in the neighbourhood are mostly bare now, it’s just starting to glow up, with the fiery oranges and reds just starting to kick in. The window in my home office looks directly at the tree and I get to watch its gloriousness unfold over the next few weeks until the finale.
We bought and moved into this house in 2021, and that maple has been a joy to behold in pretty much every season, even in winter, when it’s covered in big blobs of white snow.
The stupid maddening linden tree in my front yard however… I wish I could tap a magic wand on it and make it pretty much any other kind of tree, (even no tree, lol). All it does, all year long, is drop massive quantities of ugly seed pods onto my lawn. I can’t keep up with it. It’s not even that nice of a tree, the colour changes to a sickly brown-yellow in fall. The only time it’s not taking a dump all over my grass is in the winter, when it’s bare and doesn’t make my yard look like an unkempt disaster zone. I try very hard to keep up with the curb appeal on my street, but that damn tree makes it so hard!
This is the first year in 10 years (other than 2020, but that was just different) that we weren’t able to take our annual “campsgiving” trip with our best friends. Typically this involves renting a cottage on a lake on the second weekend of October, which is Thanksgiving here, and having lots of campfires, going on walks, canoeing, going to fall fairs and farmer’s markets, and making and eating a metric fuck ton of great food, and just being with our “chosen family” of dearest friends. Sadly, one member of our core group is undergoing treatment for a scary diagnosis and has to stay close to home until that’s finished. There is no fall cottage/campsgiving without her. So we’re sort of hoping to do a winter cottage type of thing instead, but no plans are in the works, and things just feel doomy and gloomy around here.
Might also be because my company also just let go a lot of really great people this week. There were rumours and whispers for about a month, and I didn't want to believe it, but it has come true. I'm grateful to be one of the lucky ones who gets to stay, but it really feels like a different place now... a bit post-apocalyptical even.
Despite these circumstances, I’m trying hard to just enjoy the little things anyway. I’m not drinking much alcohol these days so instead of diving into whisky season as per usual, I’m enjoying pots of hot tea (not pumpkin spice, there are just so many other better flavours).
One of the things I appreciate most about this season is watching the large maple in my backyard go through it’s big show before the big snow. It tends to be a late changer, so while the rest of the trees in the neighbourhood are mostly bare now, it’s just starting to glow up, with the fiery oranges and reds just starting to kick in. The window in my home office looks directly at the tree and I get to watch its gloriousness unfold over the next few weeks until the finale.
We bought and moved into this house in 2021, and that maple has been a joy to behold in pretty much every season, even in winter, when it’s covered in big blobs of white snow.
The stupid maddening linden tree in my front yard however… I wish I could tap a magic wand on it and make it pretty much any other kind of tree, (even no tree, lol). All it does, all year long, is drop massive quantities of ugly seed pods onto my lawn. I can’t keep up with it. It’s not even that nice of a tree, the colour changes to a sickly brown-yellow in fall. The only time it’s not taking a dump all over my grass is in the winter, when it’s bare and doesn’t make my yard look like an unkempt disaster zone. I try very hard to keep up with the curb appeal on my street, but that damn tree makes it so hard!