Oh! How Long My List...!



"Autumn is the perfect time

to take account of what we've done,

what we didn't do,

and

what we'd like to do next year."

~Author Unknown

A Sign of the Season...

...a solitary "ghost pumpkin" at twilight...

all snuggly and happy...

nestled within some early autumnal foliage...

looking skyward...

patiently

awaiting the sparkly splendor of

the coming nightfall

and the rise of the long awaited harvest moon. 

I love this time of year!

“The true harvest of my life is intangible...

 - a little star dust caught,

a portion of the rainbow I have clutched."

~Henry David Thoreau

Sweet, Sweet, Autumn...

...what a "honey" of a perfect season in Illinois...;)

“Hope is the only bee that makes honey without flowers.”

~Robert Green Ingersoll 

Nothing Like the Birth of a Baby...

...to make the collectives hearts of a family

go "pitter-patter".

Congratulations Grandpa Scott on #3.

“A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure,

a messenger of peace and love,

a resting place for innocence on earth,

 a link

between angels and men.”

~Martin Fraquhar Tupper

September...Already????

...Just how can this really be???

As you may have noticed...or NOT noticed...

 there has been an enormous

lack of any kind of activity here on my blog...

even

 after I faithfully PROMISED to you all

that this year would be different.

Well, in reality, it actually has been...different...

...sort of.

There have been a number of remarkable "firsts" that

have occurred during the past 30 days.

The past month has found me driving a couple of

thousand miles...(a recent "first")...

and seeing a region named after a couple of thousand islands

(an actual real "first").

It has found me

drawing and painting a "bajillion" artist trading cards...

(not really a "first"),

and...best of all...it had found me

visiting family in beautiful upstate New York...

(definitely the BEST "first" of them all!).

The artist trading card above was inspired by

 my grape loving cousin Cathy

and the glory of being in a Cranberry Lake

"state of mind".

I find...blessed by the golden wisdom age provides...

that

there are those special moments in our lives

when the stars seem to align

 and

all seems perfectly right...

the exact way it was somehow destined to be..

from the beginning of time.

Cranberry Lake made that happen for me

and

 memories of my short time there

will bring a warm happy smile to my heart...

for a long, long, long, long time.

"What is the definition of a good wine?

It should start and end

with a smile.”

~William Sokolin