Fall. I always liked it.
Cords and wool sweaters, the sound and feel of cracking leaves under the rainboots, the smell of soup and stews when we got home, no one to bother me if I wanted to stay in and read a book (was never one to bike around the block in summer or participate on all those ball games with the neighborhood kids)…It’s rosy cheeks and slight chills without the need for a coat, it’s weather that suits my mood all around.
And I’m smiling in that pic, and now smiling looking at it. I remember that fall, my parents had just divorced (it was an extremely messy one), I had to move in with my aunt and cousin for awhile because the situation at home was getting so out of hand, and that day was one of the first one where I remember having some kind of fun. My aunt got the neighbors to dump their piles of leaves in her yard so we could have a really big pile, and we played in it, covered ourselves in it, made tunnels, threw it everywhere, until we passed out, exhausted and smiling. And after that it got better.
*yes, almost all my family has flame-bright red hair, except mousy brown-haired moi …
i love the laundry in the background of this photo. i also love the flutter of joy in bring to my heart. it brings me back to a time when despite the utter chaos of family and home and the goings on of parents throughout my youth there were times when all that mattered were raking up the leaves and stuffing the scarecrow with dad and it wasn’t a chore.
actually my dad just cleaned out my mom’s garage and last weekend he brought over my tiny rake, tiny snow shovel, and even tinier golf clubs. i took about an hour to clean off the 20+ years of dust, dirt, & grim that they gathered while forgotten in the garage all those years but how cute they are. i am glad they were saved.
