Hello Fall

Sunday, September 19, 2011— (Tomorrow evening’s “Harvest” moon will rise nearest to earth full.)

Ahead is another rainy morning, and already outside, it’s overcast and blowy. From the barnyard are rooster’s day-opening call strings. Ah well, time to stand up, start moving.

These chillier and damper days encourage hiking. Already here are fall colors to enjoy and memorialize. One way is with a camera. Another is to collect visually attractive plants, leafs, and rocks. Collecting itself is cool, and equally so is finding ways to display items, so they’ll recreate the delight of being outside doing what feels good.

Lately, I’ve been making fun of myself, well sort-of, for staring at the ground. I’m spotting for colorful leaves and unique small stones, and doing so even while leading my trio of equines back and forth to and from John’s pasture.

The other day, I felt guilty as all heck for lifting and pocketing a stone from John’s gravel pathway. I’m no thief, or so I hope, but I’d eyed that stone for over a year.

It’s big as my palm, nearly round, somewhat like a river rock. On first seeing the stone, I picked it up but couldn’t bring myself to take it. Not wanting to lose sight of it, I set it on top of a pile of rocks surrounding John’s garden. That kept it visible through last year. But yesterday, it was among the ground mix.

Today, its atop rocks surrounding my garden. I know John won’t miss it, but, still it’s kind of his.

That’s one example from my ground searches. Right now, interesting are newly fallen leaves from deciduous trees, which locally are few as Central Oregon primarily supports conifers. But aspens and maples do grow and thrive here, becoming incredibly visible in fall, to we who stare at the ground and see dropped leaves.

Taking my “rock thievery” to heart, I’ll listen to an inner voice saying, “Best not to steal”. So, today I’ll pack a vehicle with dogs, take a collection bag, and head upward toward the mountains. While the dogs and I hike, I’ll take from nature’s big bounty whatever’s small, beautiful, and worth memorializing. Back home, I’ll think up ways to be creative and keep both that outing and haul memorable.

Dear Friends: A compliment confirming my vision would be thievery from me of John’s Rock. Diana