A Motley Array of Thoughts!

Hmm.. what should i write about this glorious autumn afternoon?  Many things on my mind.  Feel paralyzed by options.  The fabulousness of fall?  I lost my appreciation for this sublime season for awhile there.  Was truly longing for perpetual summer.  Then long about last last week.. i had an ephiphany!  Fall is fun, and delicious in its own way.  The vivid colors.. the pungent scents.. the sparkling, dancing light.  Indeed, autumn has many pleasures unique to its time.  The nutmeggy, cinnamony flavor of a slice of savory pumpkin pie.  The loud crack and crunch of that first bite into a perfectly ripe, but not always perfectly red.. apple.  The gorgeous late afternoon sunshine when the light sparkles like a flute of champagne.  A taste of tart apple cider with a cinnamon stick touch.  The cider hard or 'soft' whatever your heart desires at the moment.  The crunch and scrape of fallen leaves under my feet when i go for one of my long treks in that late afternoon sunshine.  Leaves that i don't think of as dead.  They'll be raked, placed in compost to 'ripen' in a different way.  To be placed in our garden to fertilize it in the spring..  To aid in the renewal and growth of flowers and veggies galore.  The wonderful, miraculous cycle continues...  And my very favorite thing about late fall.  Thanksgiving!  :)  When we celebrate our families, friends (and football for some,)  :D and the late fall harvest.  To show our gratitude for everything and everyone we have in this life....

Or.. do i want to talk about our 4 cats?  Who S and i adore with our whole hearts and souls.  Who are also enjoying the scents of fall floating on the breeze.  We don't have human children, so in a sense they are like our (furry) kids.  Two of them had health scares in the early months of this year.  Tortie, one of our little girls, had part of a lung removed due to cancer.  She is healthy now, and as playful as ever at 13.  For that, we are eternally grateful.  Otis, our big emerald-eyed black Maine Coon, had a radio-isotope procedure done on his thyroid.. due to hyperthyroidism that almost killed him.  Down to 5 pounds before the procedure, he is healthy and back to his 13 pound big-cat self!  More fur than he's ever had.  I call him my big lion-boy.  :)  Though he has so much fur around his.. ahem.. rear end now.. that sometimes, when he 'does his business' a little kitty doo-doo gets stuck on his butt, and i need to wipe for him.  :D  I never pictured myself needing to wipe a cat's hiney, but i love him of course.  And willingly do the stinky task.  I shouldn't complain anyway.  I've never changed a diaper in my entire 48 years on this planet of ours.  So this isn't going to kill me.. is it?  :)

I could always, i guess, talk about the latest awesome cheese i've sampled.  Maybe.  Pian Rosa, Manchego, Al Vino, a Cotswold with bits of chive.  All absolutely out of this world!  Or maybe a little bit of brie spread on a few slices of a crunchy, ripe Honeycrisp apple!  Or one of my very favorite fall 'meals', a grilled cheddar and Monterey Jack on dark rye bread with a mug of cold, tart fall apple cider.  No chips necessary.  Would 'totally' kill the flavors!  Okay. Enough about that.  I'm getting hungry, but promised S i'd wait for him so we can go out and dine together.  Like we usually do Thursday evenings.  :)

Perhaps i could talk about the books i'm currently reading.  'The Living', by Annie Dillard.  Splendid writer, Ms. Dillard.  And as the title states, it's a novel about living.  The different lives people live and the choices they make.  Am reading 'Spectator Bird', by Wallace Stegner.  Yet another magnificent writer.  I've already mentioned him in a post, i believe.  He deserves a segment of this blog all to himself.  I could rave on and on about the pleasures of reading that man's wonderful prose.  And i'm reading a non-fiction book, which i don't do often.  Not more that 3 or 4 non-fiction books per year, in fact.  But every once in awhile, i find one that strikes my fancy, and makes me crave more knowledge about a particular subject.  This one is 'The Vikings, A History', by Robert Ferguson.  I adore history and am a kind of armchair archaeologist.  This book is right up my alley.  Full of historical fact, but also some excellent photographs of archaeological finds.. interviews with scientists and forensic experts, etc.  But be warned.. the Vikings were NOT nice guys.  Seriously.. not nice at all.  Daring and ruthless, yes.  'Good'.. NO.

Geez.. well, i just 'bout guess i've talked myself out!  Gettin' to be close to time for suppah!  More later on, and next time i'll try to stick to one subject.  Hope none of you were bored.  :)  But i guess if you were, you didn't make it this far in and listen to me yammer this long.  So that's all for now, folks!

Hope you've all had a fabulous Thursday the Twenty-Ninth of September, Two Thousand Eleven...M...  Bahahahaha  :D..  for Much Too Long Winded!