After the Indian Summer is Gone...

Our Indian summer is over. It was one of those days where, when you get up, it's chilly outside. There's not quite a frost but nature was thinking about it. It's cold enough that you feel like you need a jacket but if you wear one, you're going to feel a little silly by midday when it's warmed up and you're suddenly carrying around a jacket. You still want to put the jacket on because it's still not warm, per se and yet...well, you're not used to it being jacket weather and you don't want to give in, not yet...even though it's time.

It was still a beautiful day out there today. Most of the leaves have fallen and they're swept into tidy heaps. Some ambitious souls are still mowing their lawns. I don't understand this, honestly. I know it's a way of mulching the leaves but the grass is dying back. We didn't have enough rain this summer for the grass to grow much at all during late July/August. Besides that, we've had a hard frost and it's bad for the lawn to cut it.

Still, when I run home at lunch to release the hounds from their crate, there are usually a couple of men mowing their lawns in the warm sun. Perhaps it's their attempt to cling on to the warmer days of the past season. Perhaps they just like mowing their lawn. It's hard to say. Yet there's a chill to the air now that wasn't here last week. It's the type of chill that's letting us know that winter isn't too far away and autumn is saying goodbye to summer, once and for all.

The evenings are cooler again after the tease of the Indian summer. I walked the pups again tonight and as I walked with them, I realized that if you were to take the calendar and flip it horizontally so that we were in spring, not autumn, this was the exact type of evening you'd find. It comes in after a warm day and there's a chill to the air, the same type of chill there was tonight.

The puppies will be disappointed that Indian summer is over. They love their 'leaf dives' in the evenings. Now, with the time change, it's getting dark when we start out and almost dark when we're done. Rory has been able to perform her belly flops into leaf piles under cover of night. It makes it a little less embarrassing if she splats the pile back into an untidy mess of leaves instead of a neatly swept pile. I try to stop her but she's a dachshund on a mission. Sookie, meanwhile, waits for Rory to splat the pile and then she has a nose. One time, they found a vole that one of the neighbourhood cats had clearly hidden in the pile. They thought it was a prize until I made them drop it. They do like their prizes. They haven't caught much in our garden though they had a lovely time hunting voles at my parents. By my count, they caught three. They also caught a rather large cricket and found a recently dead bird. There's no doubt about it: My dogs are hunters.

Yet they also enjoy the sniff of the hunt as much as the thrill of a catch. That's what they do on their walks. You can always tell when they've scented a bunny and they know it's nearby. The leashes go taut and they're both poised, ready to locate the bunny. The nice thing about them being on a leash is...they're on a leash. I can control their hunting expedition.

Of course, I still can't quite control Rory and her tendency to belly flop into leaf piles but it's probably because I just don't try as hard. There's something just too adorable about watching her run, do this strange little leap and suddenly be in the middle of the pile while her sister looks on, as though shaking her head and saying, "Messy little sod!"

Then again, maybe that's me.

Oh well, we may as well enjoy our autumn walks while the weather is letting us still take them. Belly flops and all.

Happy Tuesday!

Warm Days, Cold Noses....

Apparently, we're officially having an Indian summer. I learned yesterday from Frank Marzullo and the Fox 19 Stormtracker weather team that were having one. This is because we've had a 'hard freeze' and then the temperatures have risen. Given that we've had 70 degree days since Monday, this is definitely the case.

It still feels odd though that it's getting dark at 5 p.m. It feels odd that when I get home from work and the pups are in their crate, the shadows are already long in the kitchen and the puppies are still staring at me as if to say, "Dude! Why are you SO late?"

To make matters worse, I've been going out after work for the past two nights which means I come home, let them out, call them in so I can leave again and, by the time I get home, it's dark.

The puppies don't understand this. I don't understand it either, to be honest. It's to get home at 7 p.m and feel like it's far too late to have been out on a work night.

Still, it's all part of the process of moving between seasons. In a few weeks, it'll all feel normal. The Indian summer will be over and we'll be moving on into the chill of winter.

As you know, I love winter. I love the fact that it's a cleansing break between the finality of autumn and the newness of spring. I love snow. I love frost. I love having the perfect excuse to stay inside, snuggle up with a puppy and read or watch TV or write. It's all part of the semi-hibernation process.

And yet it's not winter yet as evidenced by the beautiful days we're having at the moment. It's wonderful to come home at lunch without a jacket and watch the puppies frollic in the garden they way they did most of the spring and summer. It's been too cold lately for them to do much outside but hunt the occasional squirrel, do their 'business' and come in. I think they're as delighted as I am that it's warm enough to go out.

Of course, it's still getting pretty nippy at night. We've still had a few frosts. Personally, this is the way I like my weather. I love the dramatic difference between daytime and nightime. Even when it's freezing outside, I keep my house cool at night so that I can snuggle in my bed and enjoy the cocoon factor. These days, I have two doggy-hot-water-bottles to keep me warm. Rory snuggles on the right, Sookie on the left. They burrow under the covers, heads towards my pillow and lay vertically pressed up against me. It's very comfortable and it's lovely to feel that loved and needed.

Naturally, I know it's really because they're cold and I'm a convenient puppy-warmer but it's still nice to have the snuggle factor on chilly nights. It makes the slightly eerie creaks and groans of my little house a little less sinister when you have two puppies you know will alert you if there's really something to be worried about.

I love having my pups to keep me company on chilly nights. Of course the fact that they like to press their cold noses up against me tends to make me jump a little at first but I'm getting used to it. I don't like it when they need to get up in the wee hours of the morning to go outside because it means I have to leave the cocoon of my bed to open the back door.

However, when we come back to bed, chilled from the frosty air, I do enjoy the race we have to see who can get under the covers first. I usually win.

They follow quickly, cold noses and all.

I love autumn!

Happy Thursday!

Near-Autumn Walks and Such

Today was a busy day at work. These are good days because not only do I feel like I'm actually doing something and serving a genuine, actual purpose but it also makes the day go by very quickly. It's nice to look at the clock and realize that a couple of hours have passed instead of, as on a normal day, glancing up very frequently and wondering why barely any time has passed.

In addition to it being a nice busy day, it's also another, cool autumn-day. Last night, I slept with my bedroom windows open and I woke up chilly under my light bedcovers. If I knew the coolness was going to stick around, I'd add another blanket to my bed but I know it's supposed to warm up again. Besides, I have two dachshunds on my bed who provide me with a little extra warmth so I really don't need it.

Of course, I'm aware that I'm actually the one providing the warmth to the dogs. I'm not that delusional that I think they're trying to do me a favour. This can be evidenced by Rory burrowing under the covers after having a little groan.

Rory groans a lot when she's sleeping. If you so much as touch her while she's in 'sleep-mode', she makes this rather adorable groaning sound. If she stirs in the night, she groans. If she's annoyed about being disturbed, she groans. You get the idea.

Thus, last night, I half-heard her groan in my own sleepy state and then I felt her try to find a way under the covers. She couldn't seem to find a way in and she started to get upset so I ended up lifting the covers up so she could warm up. Sookie, meanwhile, rather cutely just snuggles up with me so that we woke up almost nose to nose. There is a reason why I call her my 'teddy bear dog.'

Since it's cooled down, it means the weather is highly amenable to taking walks with the dogs. They've started actually responding to the word "Walk" and so when I say it, they sit by the door, waiting. They didn't used to do this. They used to hide. That was when I used to put on their adorable but rather fiddly and complex little pink harnesses. Now they're bigger, those harnesses don't fit and they have much more comfortable ones that require a mere slipping over the head and stepping into it in order to get it on.

We try to take our walk before Larry-the-Potential-Serial-Killer comes home from work. It's riskier to walk by his house on nice evenings. It's also harder to get away if he does entrap us in conversation because I can't necessarily use the, "I need to take the pups home because they need to drink water," excuse that I use when it gets hot.

Still, we haven't seen Larry in a while. Well, we haven't seen him to talk to him. We did walk and see him in his garden but, fortunately, he was engrossed in picking tomatoes and he didn't see us. It probably helps that I walk very quickly and I also try to remain very, very quiet so he doesn't hear us. I'd like to think the puppies know we're avoiding him because they certainly seem to walk faster.

For the most part, walking with the pups in the evenings is a pleasure. It's beautiful weather, I'm getting exercise and we can explore the neighbourhood. The only part that isn't so much of a pleasure is the squirrels. I can always tell when Rory and Sookie see a squirrel because suddenly, my arm feels as though it's trying to be disconnected from its socket and the leash goes very, very taut. I'm trying to teach the girls that they cannot, in fact, climb trees and follow the squirrel but they still attempt to do so until I remind them who's the boss by giving them a stern tug on their leash.

Squirrels are their new bunnies. We have quite a few around our back yard. Having discovered the source of the hickory nuts- which is a tree in Possibly-Joe's front yard- I'm no longer alarmed at finding hickory nuts around my house. The girls like to try to chew them but the nuts are so tough, they can't break the shell. The squirrels, however, have taken to sitting on the fence or up in the trees and chewing on the nuts. You can hear the "tchhk tchkk tchukk" of their teeth as they chomp the encasement for the nuts. It falls to the ground and leaves quite a mess, rather like a human who throws their trash all over the place and doesn't pick it up.The puppies have learned to recognize the "tchhk tchkk tchukk" sound. The minute they hear it, they go into obsessive-crack-junkie-mode and they attempt to locate the source. The squirrels are far craftier than the rabbits though. They can climb trees for one thing and they're also much quicker. The puppies have been thwarted on more than one occasion as they attempt to catch a squirrel for playtime.

There's no doubt about it, with the chill of the night air and the increased number of nut-harvesting squirrels, autumn is almost upon us. Give it a couple of weeks and we'll start calling the hot days "Indian Summer". For now, as summer is losing her hold and giving way to autumn, we're in that pleasant transition between seasons where you never know what each day will bring. While I'd rather it stayed cooler, there's something about not knowing which show itself tomorrow that's rather nice.

It's just nice to be surprised sometimes.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Indian Summer Market Type of Days....

It's another Monday morning and this one comes after an amazing weekend. It's never easy to come back to work after a weekend but it's even harder when the weekend turns out to be so beautiful and goes by so quickly.

And it was a beautiful weekend. We finally got our Indian summer. It was, simply put, amazing weather out there. We had two balmy 70 degree days, full of sunshine and just enough of a wind to make the leaves dance merrily around.

I had a near-perfect Saturday. I woke up earlier than I usually do on weekends, around 7 a.m. Normally, my body-clock goes off between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. on Saturdays. I think it must still be adjusting to daylight savings time. Still, I was awake and I lazed around, watching snippets of movies on HBO while I got up and ready and then I decided to try my luck down at Findlay Market again.

Since it wasn't yet 9 a.m. when I left, I hoped that my usual trick of getting to busy places early would pay off and I wouldn't struggle so much to find a parking space. This time, I was lucky. While the main car park was full to the brim, there was ample parking around the corner in the overflow carpark. I merrily parked my car and walked down the street to the market.

It was a perfect day for an open-air market. There were already street performers playing and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. I filled my canvas bag to the brim with fresh fruit and vegetables and then stopped at the meat market for some sausages. I love the Kroeger Meat stall down there. They have a whole counter of different types of sausage including camel sausage. I wasn't bold enough to try that but I did buy two Vidalia Onion sausages to try along with my current favourite- Swedish potato. When I was done, I bought a cup of coffee and fresh croissant and sat outside at one of the little tables and just enjoyed the sunshine. It felt just like old times in L.A. when I'd first moved out and I discovered the earlier-morning temptations of the city such as the Santa Monica Farmer's Market. The only difference was that there, I would stop into the Tudor House tea room for a cup of tea and a scone for breakfast or, if I needed something heartier, I'd treat myself to the Queen's breakfast the Ye Olde King's Head Tavern across the road.

Still, though I lacked my British breakfast comforts, I still greatly enjoyed my morning at Findlay Market. There is nothing to be scoffed at in enjoying a freshly brewed cup of coffee and a buttery croissant. It was nice to be in the middle of a bustling place; It was great to be back in the city.

I followed up my market morning by stopping by Trader Joe's on the way home. I haven't been in a Trader Joe's since I left California but I felt like it was time. I felt at home as soon as I got inside; a Trader Joe's is a Trader Joe's regardless of where it's located. The only major difference I found was in the price of wine. In L.A., the "Two Buck Chuck" is....$1.99, hence the name "Two Buck Chuck." In Ohio, "Two Buck Chuck" becomes....$3.79 Chuck. That's rather a large difference when it comes to cheap wine. I was never a huge fan of the stuff; there were a few blends that were quite nice and when I'm broke and in the mood for wine, $1.99 is a perfect satiate. However, as I got a wee bit more snobbish, I reserved the $1.99 wine for mulling around the holidays. I love mulled wine; it's a perfect warming treat on a cold night. It doesn't matter how cheap the wine is for mulling because the spices instantly lift it up and beyond it's mediocrity.

Still, given that I can go to Jungle Jim's and buy much more decent wine for $3.99 or, sometimes, when they're having a great sale, $3.33 a bottle, I didn't cave to my nostalgia and I left the Two Buck Chuck alone. One thing I've learned that when you live in a state that's famous for its wine like California, you get spoiled at the lower cost of wine. Here, in Ohio, where the majority is shipped in from other regions, there's quite an inflated cost involved.

Nevertheless, I still managed to enjoy my Trader Joe's experience. Since I was clearly in the mood to shop and had a few shopping list items from my family, I ended my Tour D'Grocery at Jungle Jim's where I had a lovely couple of hours looking at the interesting stuff they had. They had a cow's head for sale on Saturday along with lots of duck-heads. I'm fascinated by their head collection. You never know what type of eyes will be staring up at you from the strange meat counter.

When I finished my shopping, it was still fairly early so I spent the rest of the day in the garden, trimming the bushes back, raking up the thickest areas of the fallen leaves and putting them over the more fragile of the bushes to act as a layer of mulch. I also discovered a remedy to the neighbour's yappy dogs: I put my iPod on and crank it up. Problem solved! I don't crank it to the point that I have a ringing in my ears even after the music stops but it is just loud enough that the perfect Indian summer day has a fun soundtrack and the sound of high-pitched, yapping rat terriers is merely a silent inconvenience as I move around my yard. The only problem I had was that I was listening to the Glee Volume 1. soundtrack and it's got a few songs that just make you want to dance. I found myself dancing as I raked the leaves which wasn't a problem until I realized that the neighbour on the other side of the yapping dogs was out in his garden and was staring over at me with some amusement. Instead of getting embarrassed, I gave him a wave and then continued to rake.

My Sunday was much like my Saturday but instead of my Grocery Shopping Marathon, I wrote instead. I think I mentioned that I was working on my novel for National Novel Writing Month. I've had several people ask me what I get if I win. I should probably clarify. It's not a contest. Instead, it's basically just a little like a sponsored walk or run, except you don't HAVE to get sponsored. Just like with one of those where you make a pledge to run or walk a certain distance in a time frame, National Novel Writer's Month is a pledge for writers to say they will write a 50K word novel in 30 days. There's no prize other than the accomplishment of finishing. You can get sponsored and donate the profits. You don't have to.

For me, it's a way to jump start my writing again. I wrote 8 novels in about 6 years. That's quite a lot. Then...I stopped. I shouldn't have but my last effort, not only shadowed by my horrible Amazon/Publisher's Weekly experience, was a lot of work to write. I had to force it. I couldn't talk to my characters the way I was used to doing and it didn't feel quite right. Since then, I haven't been able to really settle down on anything.

Thus, I made my pledge to National Novel Writing Month (NaNaWriMo) to write a novel. And I'm doing it. I've been a bit lax and only really spent about 7 hours in total on it since November 1st but I already have almost 13K words and I'm having fun. It's a silly novel that starts out a bit like a creepy horror story about a demon whose haunting a young lady but it turns out that his demon-heart isn't quite in it and he actually doesn't like being a demon. While my slightly dark and twisty nature thought about making a terrifying horror story, I didn't want to do that and I thought it might be interesting to tell the story as a lighter comedy. My plucky little heroine just bought her first house and now she's got a demon living with it. When it takes away her access to the Food Network right before she finds out who the Next Iron Chef is going to be, she stops being afraid of her demon and confronts it, thus beginning a somewhat interesting relationship with a creature that's supposed to be evil but doens't quite have its heart in it.

It's silly. It's light. It's fun to write. I think that's really the whole point in writing, really. It's not supposed to be hard work and it never has been before for me. When it became work, it stopped being fun. Thus, I'm attempting to remind myself that it's not about trying to get published or find an agent but about laughing aloud when something surprises me. I mean, who knew my demon was going to sound decidedly like Eeyore when it finally spoke?

I'm hoping I meet my self-imposed deadline for NaNaWriMo. I have a feeling I will. It's never been the word count that's been a problem, more the flow of the writing. So far, so good.

All in all, with markets, working outside, writing and the absolutely amazing weather, this was an amazing weekend. Today is also supposed to be a beautiful day but, alas, I'm trapped inside my basement dwelling. I'm thinking I might escape at lunch to take a walk, however. It seems a shame to waste a perfectly beautiful day on work.

Happy Monday!