happyToday is the first of October, the last month of the year (as reckoned by some calendars, including the one I elect to keep). The leaves are turning; the heat is fading; the migratory birds are moving on. The monarch butterflies have already left for their long trek down the California coast to Mexico, where they'll spend the winter on sunny beaches, dreaming of Santa Cruz. In the fields, the corn and pumpkins are coming in, along with the late-season tomatoes and the sweetest apples. The cats are putting their warmest coats on, preparing themselves for frozen nights ahead. Fall is finally here.
I am delighted beyond all measure.
I've always been an autumn girl. I love the smell of fallen leaves, the smell of rain either coming or just barely past, the smell of bonfires burning in the near distance. I love the cries of the crows as they call each other to treasure, and the mournful wail of the coyotes in the hills, singing summer to its rest. Persephone has taken off her summer dresses and hung up the apron she wears when she works her summer job—I always assume she works at an ice cream parlor, I don't know exactly why—and is making her way back to Hades, back to her husband, back to her home. The seasons are turning, and for a little while, I get to go as Persephone goes, because this time of the year...this time of the year is my home.
Many of my friends are summer girls. They like the heat and the green and the flowers everywhere. I like a lot of things about the summer—I like strawberries and lizards and the ability to walk for miles without carrying an umbrella—but summer's not my home. A few of my friends are winter girls. They like the cold and the white and the taste of frost. I like a lot of things about the winter—I like cocoa and warm blankets and the taste of peppermint in everything—but winter's not my home, either.
The first of October is always wonderful, because it's like opening a book I've read before that still manages to be different every single time. Welcome back, October. I couldn't be happier to see you.
Welcome to the fall.
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October 1 2010, 15:18:33 UTC 6 years ago
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October 1 2010, 15:18:44 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 15:11:40 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 15:19:05 UTC 6 years ago
My going to school with a girl named "October," on the other hand...
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October 1 2010, 15:14:38 UTC 6 years ago
Plus, Halloween was my mother's favorite holiday, because she loved to make things. When we were kids, she'd break out the sewing machine and make us whatever we wanted as a costume, usually based around sweatsuits and Simplicity patterns. That and she had a garage half-full of things like orange lights and cobwebs and fake tombstones and various effigies of Universal monsters* that went up on a nice weekend around the end of September. My grandmother knew how much Mom loved Halloween, so every year for Christmas, Mom would get clearance Halloween decorations from her mother, which always made it fun to open a grandma-gift.
Since I moved out on my own, and she moved to an apartment, it's not the same.
* The other half was a mix of Christmas stuff, plus assorted other holidays -- candy and hearts, giant plastic eggs, shamrocks, flags, etc.
October 1 2010, 15:19:27 UTC 6 years ago
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October 1 2010, 15:22:51 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 22:32:27 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 15:25:25 UTC 6 years ago
On the East Coast, I'm an autumn girl all the way. I'm my daddy's girl there. We love the smell of dead leaves and dormant grass, of a carved pumpkin (of basically everything pumpkin), and that kiss of winter in the air. I'd live forever in high fall in New England if I could.
Winter is nice for about two weeks and then I just want the snow to go away.
And I sneeze all the way through spring, which rather dampens my enthusiasm for it.
October 1 2010, 22:32:35 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 15:31:07 UTC 6 years ago
... now it's, when do the apples start being FRESH? and wow, I can walk more now that the temperature is cooler, and Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and it gets dark sooner without being cold, and man, I miss the leaves turning.
I actually stood up to my mother to celebrate it when I was 17, and back then, I never stood up to my mother.
So among other things, Halloween will always be linked to freedom for me.
October 1 2010, 22:32:51 UTC 6 years ago
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October 1 2010, 15:47:37 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 22:33:12 UTC 6 years ago
Well, that, and the spiders.
October 1 2010, 15:59:20 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 22:33:23 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 16:36:12 UTC 6 years ago
Thank you for the change in perspective. ^_^
I think Persephone laces magic into the ice-cream...lavender might soothe, honey give you a tingle of happiness, pomegranate give you just a moment of clarity. And the good feelings ice-cream gives, gives her something in return.
AngelVixen :-)
P.S. I grew up being told crows were ugly scavengers and harbingers of Bad Things. This line, right here, "I love the cries of the crows as they call each other to treasure," makes me thrill in a way I can't really explain. Thank you for that change in outlook, too!
October 1 2010, 22:33:33 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 16:47:20 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 22:33:48 UTC 6 years ago
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October 1 2010, 17:01:34 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 17:24:16 UTC 6 years ago
I'm beginning to suspect I might be an autumn girl, too. I like summer better than spring, and spring better than winter, but none of those have the harvest traditions and the marching bands, and the beautiful foliage. The foliage isn't quite as gorgeous in Connecticut as it is near my home town in northern Mass, but there are still gigantic apples, apple cider, apple pie, turkey, fall decorations, and oh my yum more hot apple cider, and apple crisps. I'm not in high school any more, so I no longer have marching band, but I can still watch marching bands. I'm not a football fan, but I can still sit in the stands in pep band, playing, and having a great time.
My class organized "Fallapalooza" last week, in which we got all the yummy harvest food (which was delicious, even cold, since I carried it to the other side of campus to eat) and music, and general festivities.
And every year it's like I rediscover how much I love when the apples come into season.
October 1 2010, 22:34:05 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 17:26:24 UTC 6 years ago
And, of course, my two "home" conventions, Conclave and OVFF. See you in three weeks. :)
October 13 2010, 20:53:11 UTC 6 years ago
See you next year.
6 years ago
Waiting to see
October 1 2010, 17:41:06 UTC 6 years ago
-Shanta
Re: Waiting to see
October 13 2010, 20:53:21 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 18:03:37 UTC 6 years ago
Yes, it IS magnificent.
October 13 2010, 20:53:39 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 19:27:34 UTC 6 years ago
I tend to like the change over the cusp of one season to the next.
October 13 2010, 20:53:52 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 19:34:02 UTC 6 years ago
October 13 2010, 20:53:57 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 19:41:26 UTC 6 years ago
(Also: I like the idea of Persephone at the ice-cream parlour :D)
October 13 2010, 20:54:07 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 19:57:51 UTC 6 years ago
October 13 2010, 20:54:20 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 20:17:19 UTC 6 years ago
Winter is pretty, if I don't have to go out in it. Which I invariably do.
Summers in New England are usually paltry things, compared to Texas summer. I recall walking out one hot morning (prosaically lugging a bag of used kitty litter to dump unobtrusively in our extensive back yard), and the humidity was low (for a change), and the heat and sunlight... shone through me, like light through stained glass.
I suppose that I've been a summer girl ever since, really. There is the memory of Texas sunheat in my bones, more than 20 years later.
I do wish I could appreciate Fall without my mind wandering painfully to the winter that must follow. O:(
October 13 2010, 20:54:41 UTC 6 years ago
Hot Summer Nights
October 1 2010, 20:59:27 UTC 6 years ago
Summer in Alabama isn't for the weak. It's blasting-hot sun, lethal to some, so intense that I once dreamed an entire fantasy novel of solar-powered Egyptian gods up between July and August while taking law school classes. I like how just walking outside raises your pulse and makes you reach for the sunglasses, the way that the rays would vaporize you if you let them. But in the land of sweet ice tea, we cope and eat barbecue, grilled meat, fresh produce from the street markets.
Fall is nice. It has October, my favorite holiday of ghost stories, spooky movies on television, and gruesome decorations. It's a solitary holiday for me, though. November and Thanksgiving will be when family comes together.
Winter has its charms too, shuddering cold and bleak bareness that makes me want to drive a stake through its heart, killing the vampire who sucks the heat from my bones and won't let me go. No, I'm no fan of winter's charms. But there's an elemental purity in surviving it.
Spring is a beautiful girl trying on new clothes for the first time. Who doesn't like welcoming her? After the winter, she's a cheerful phoenix in green, life reborn from chilly ashes.
But give me summer, always, the heat and fire and life, that shout out in light white to the world. Give me something to dream about, to treasure through the winter.
Re: Hot Summer Nights
October 13 2010, 21:00:45 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 22:50:07 UTC 6 years ago
I was born the day after the Day of the Dead, and I suppose autumn will always be my home. Summers are too hot, winters too monotonous (well, in California anyway) and spring - while lovely - is filled with reminders of the coming heat.
And October is the month where things begin to slow, where the harvests are brought in and where (some of) our ancestors began to stockpile in preparation for the coming lean months. And there's Halloween to look forward to, as well as celebrations of Samhain for those so inclined.
A joyous autumn from me to all, and may the things you enjoy most about this season come to you in abundance.
October 13 2010, 21:01:04 UTC 6 years ago
October 1 2010, 22:51:19 UTC 6 years ago
Even in the years when Indian Summer keeps the daytime temperatures warm enough that you don't even need a sweater in the evening, there is a promise of Winter's kiss in the air. Crickets seem to sing their lullaby to draw in the cloak of colors that will give way to the long nights calling the land to rest.
This also seems, to me, to be the most magical of seasons.
October 13 2010, 21:01:21 UTC 6 years ago
October 2 2010, 00:13:29 UTC 6 years ago
October 13 2010, 21:01:27 UTC 6 years ago
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