Welcome, Fall!

Our dry, brittle leaves don’t get the lovely tinted changes at the onset of Fall, & our climate holds a steady temperature of 101°, dipping slightly into the high nineties throughout the first few weeks of the seasonal change.

Nevertheless, Fall is here. And this house is ready.

I pieced this wreath together a couple weeks ago while watching a holiday movie (could not help it). It’s been stashed in the Craft Room since, waiting for Fall to come knocking. Yesterday Anthony crawled into the attic to sift through Christmas boxes & returned with the wreath hanger. Only two more months before all the contents of those boxes can be unleashed!

Butternut Squash & Vanilla Risotto was had this evening to ring in Fall.

Warm cranberry apple cider with cinnamon & cloves awaited us after dinner. The house smelled divine.

These are to be whipped up within the week. I’ve gone through my recipes & pulled out all the Fall-ish soups & desserts…now I will need to be patient enough for Mother Nature to share Fall temperatures with us.

On the eve of Autumn, we went out for our evening walk only to encounter a trio of nomad kittens a few houses down. One ran up to us, eager for love (read:food) & promptly fell into step with us as we paved our way back home. The others, a slinky black thing & a tiger striped tabby, lingered slowly behind, adamant in keeping the crew together. I am fairly certain they are little wandering strays, but more certain that they do have a purpose & they know what it is.

I spent time with them at our door last night, watching them romp through our barren lawn, chasing crickets & leaping over the piles of dried weeds (at least someone appreciates our yard). Eventually the second kitten warmed up to me & began spiraling between my ankles. I named her Serafina. Anthony deemed the shy one Harold (I am sure he is the boy of the group; he is quite timid). The most forward kitten, the leader of the pack, still goes unnamed. During one of my several wake-ups thoughout the night I think I decided she could be Nattie, but I’m not entirely taken with the moniker.

Cats are magical to me, symbolic I suppose. Over 10 years ago, on the day we had to put our white kitten down, I was sitting on the stoop outside my parents’ house & spotted a shaggy tabby curled up under a car across the street. It was my first encounter with a stray cat, but I called to it & surprisingly he ran over & unabashedly began nuzzling me. I was instantly soothed in a way that all the words of comfort fed to me that day seemed to lack. We named him Sebastian & he became our “outside cat.” He was my angel cat, I am confident. There was something magical about him, about our meeting. Later on, he & “his wife” Susie stashed their litter of squeaking kittens under our side window & we took them in to nourish & find homes. We kept two for ourselves, our little mini-angels…

Last night’s encounter with the nomads felt very reminiscent of Sebastian’s homecoming. There was no event to mourn or comforting needed, but rather I think their presence symbolizes change. The onset of Fall, the imminent arrival of our own little angel any day now.

I don’t think I’ve ever anticipated the turn of seasons so much.

When Ella is old enough to know about the seasons & begins to wonder what makes Fall so different & special, I will tell her it is a time of magic. The weight of the air lifts, the leaves begin to turn, & change can be felt when you step outside your decorated door. She will grow up knowing the dawn of Fall by the cinnamon scent in her home. And she will know that of all the seasons in my life, she brought me the most pleasant change of any.

Happy Fall to you & yours.

Yay!! My Joel Dewberry fabric is in! It arrived just before the baby shower preparations, & I haven’t had a chance to start on my quilt yet, but the plans are laid & waiting for me. Very simple plans, of course, because it is to be my first quilting experience, but it’s nice to know the plans are set.

I’d been unhealthily coveting that almond sparrow fabric there on the far right since this post. I started the search for what turned out to be the very mysteriously disappearing print & couldn’t find it in any online quilt shops. I called a store in a neighboring town to see if they would magically have any little birdies waiting for me. The woman sounded like she’d heard the question several times before. “If it has birds, I don’t have it. I’ve got Joel Dewberry, but only the turquoise stripes & dots. Usually when a print runs out, that’s it…the designer only runs so many…” Sigh. Eventually I turned to Ebay & in desperation actually considered buying the little sparrows for $25/yard. !!! Thankfully Anthony saw what I was doing & told me we’d find a way to work around the lack of sparrows. So we came up with a new color scheme, still in the aviary collection, but the line of yellowy fabrics instead of browns. I chose new prints, laid out my plans on Photoshop, & somewhat discouraged, went to order the new picks.

It turned out to be a wonderful day for fabric purchasing. The shop I’d planned to buy from magically had the little almond sparrow print in stock! I veered back to my original plans, upped the amount of my coveted print, & in very high spirits, placed my order as quickly as possible. I was so worried the little sparrows would fly away again, but I finally reined them in!

So there they wait for me. I’ve already cut into the sparrows & sent a bit off with my sister to San Francisco so she can begin working on Ella’s baby book. I’m thankful for that first cut that’s already been done. I tend to stash my most beloved fabrics as I feel they’re too beautiful to use. But these, oh these fine prints will look so much nicer once they’re bundling up a little girl named Ella.