Inspiration

How October Tales Spooked Me To Welcome November 2023

Shelley

As we end fall and gear up to greet winter, the blessed fallback time change happens. That dealy bobby thingy is for the birds. It ruffles my feathers and our cats’ whiskers EVERY time. How about you? Do you feel off when the time changes?

This morning’s meet and greet for kitty chow began at the lovely darkness of 3:08 a.m. whereas Dessy meowed on a decibel meter high enough to permeate the room until the humans arose. (Stream of Consciousness paragraphs ✅)

Yes, my face looking at her resembled this less-than-enthused expression.

Oh, well, such is life.

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.

Thomas Hardy

An early rising leaves me with some extra time, I guess. Goodness knows I could use some extra time. That’s an illusion, I know.

When I get a spare moment in the sun, though, I know it is best to sit and enjoy it! Fall weather is one of my favorite times to do so.

“Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn.”

–   Elizabeth Lawrence

I saw old Autumn in the misty morn stand, shadowless like silence, listening to silence.

Thomas Hood

“Bittersweet October.  The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause 
between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.” 

–   Carol Bishop Hipps

In retrospect, we did have a nice October. It’s hard to believe it is already November. My birthday month 🥳 Yay for me that October threw me a party to enjoy as I remembered how lovely being 58 is/was. I’ve paused often to witness some pretty awesome sights this past year. And I get to spend next weekend with my daughters!

“October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.”

–   George Cooper, October’s Party

“In spring when maple buds are red,
We turn the clock an hour ahead;
Which means, each April that arrives,
We lose an hour out of our lives.

Maple Tree Buds Spring 2023

Who cares? When autumn birds in flocks
Fly southward, back we turn the clocks,
And so regain a lovely thing
That missing hour we lost in spring.”

Phyllis McGinley, Daylight Savings Time

I’d say by October 22 the Oak trees across the field were in their full color. Red is a trending color in fashion this fall.

Which asymmetric photo do you like best – the one above 👆🏻 or the one below 👇🏻?

The leaves hadn’t all fallen off the trees as October parted ways when November arrived. But they did experience the first snow of the season that fell on them to remind them maybe it was time to drop to the ground. Many are still hanging on!

https://www.almanac.com/winter-weather-folklore

Oh dear, I fear, if that prediction is correct, snow will be falling here more often than we’d like this winter. 🤔😏

The photos below were taken on October 31. It was a chilly Halloween for the kiddos. Thankfully, the snow didn’t stick around.

“Flowers bloomin’ in late Autumn, A sure sign of a bad winter comin.”

Almanac.com

“When leaves fall early, Fall and winter will be mild; When leaves fall late, Winter will be severe.

Almanac.com

A quote on Almanac.com spooked me: Leaves … If the leaves wither on the branches in October instead of falling, an extra cold winter is in store.  Our Catalpa tree leaves normally fall with the first frost. They hung on through several frosts.

Here they are, withering together on the tree in October.

As of the sunset last night, all the Catalpa leaves are gone, but our maple tree still has green leaves on it. It must be confused.

“Just before the death of flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season
When nature is all aglow.”

–   Author Unknown

And the tale you’ve been waiting to read. 🤣 What else did I see during Halloween week? Read with caution: I saw a bloody mouseaccre. (my made-up word, duh) One of our super-brave cats chased down a 1.5-inch-long mouse that ended up with a bloody nose that dragged itself along the baseboards and onto the rugs in the bathroom where it gave up its ghost. Mr. buried it in the garbage. I didn’t have the heart to take photos of the crime scene. I’m glad the story ended with the mouse no longer in the house.

Yes, you’re right, we need to find that entryway hole and stuff it with some steel wool!

On a slightly less bone-chilling note, we’ve made it so far by not turning on our furnace – it’s a record for us as we’ve never made it this long into November. Thank goodness Mr. has kept the fireplace stoked. The last log he puts on before he heads to bed has enough heat to permeate the house with just enough warmth overnight.

November 2, 2023

So there you have it folks, we’ve made it to November 2023. Today, we turned on the furnace to make sure it works! I hear the hum of the fan as I type. Ah. . .

Your turn now. What’s happening in your neck of the woods to fluff or ruffle your feathers?

Post Inspiration: Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “meat/meet/mete.” Use one or use ’em all for bonus points. Have fun! Terri Webster Schrandts’ Sunday Stills: Nov 5 Leaves, Autumn or Spring. Brian at Bushboy.blog for #LastOnTheCard for October 2023. And Donna at WindKisses for Lens-Artists Challenge #274 –Asymmetry

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

56 thoughts on “How October Tales Spooked Me To Welcome November 2023”

  1. You took many beautiful photos, Shelley! I’m glad the mouse is no longer in the house too, yuck. Good cats! The little bird is so cute! It’s amazing that something so small can handle the deep cold weather there. 63 degrees is too cold for my home, brr! Have a great new week, guys, stay warm. (i’ll be in Michigan tomorrow)…

    1. Thank you, John! I bet 63 feels cold to you compared to Vegas.
      I hope you have a great week in Michigan. Stay warm and hug your dad and family!! 🤗

          3. You’re welcome, Shelley! I’m at the airport waiting for my 5:15 departure for Detroit. Way too early!

          5. I’m going to try to sleep but it’s hard to do. I’ll be up there for 15 days. The three hour time difference gets me.

          6. I bet that’s hard to adjust to. Just about when you get adjusted you return home. I hope all goes well while you’re there!

          7. You are right. But, it took about three days to get used to Pacific time again. I always get to the airport too early. Thanks, Shelley, I worry about my dad a lot in his condition.

          8. I can only imagine how hard it is to adjust to the time change. One hour difference throws me off.

            It’s hard to deal with health conditions from afar and close by. You’re in my thoughts and prayers! Enjoy every moment you have with your dad. 🤗

  2. Ok, first off–great post–you are so getting the hang of quintuple-dipping, Shelley! But I got no pingback, and no email this time. I figured you posted, so I searched and found it. So weird. Plus I don’t see a way to follow your blog (although I know I am, or was).

    Secondly, I read this: Leaves … “If the leaves wither on the branches in October instead of falling, an extra cold winter is in store.” This is exactly what happened last year. I even shared a pic today on the withered maple leaves–and guess what–a super cold and snowy winter from November through end of March here in Eastern WA last year. Talk about a spooky and frightful prediction!

    Wonderful autumn leaves in your photos and glad you finally turned on the heat. We had to keep our house at 70F all week due to each of us having the flu. I wasn’t going to be a hero in my own house 🙂

    1. Hi Terri – yes, I’m getting the hang of it, but it seems to make for other issues. So dang, I have no idea why you didn’t get email or pingback. I sound like a broken record, but I need to figure out what I’m doing wrong.

      Oh, my that’s spooky indeed if we’re in for the winter that is predicted. Sigh.

      Thanks for enjoying the autumn photos. The leaves here were gorgeous.

      I’m glad you kept the heat warm enough to help you both through the flu. It’s no fun being chilly while sick. 🤗 I hope you’re feeling much better now.

  3. Love the photos and the poetry excerpts today, Shelley. “…the opposing miseries of summer and winter.” That’s close to how I feel, although I appreciate winter more than summer lately. Good that you’ve held off the heat, Ours has been on for a while. I’ve raked leaves, and we still have leaves on trees. We still have plenty of time. The leaf dump is open until Dec 3rd and they’ll pick bags up at the curb for the last time on the 4th. Looks like you guys ar ready for winter, whenever it starts and however bad it gets. I hope you have a great week.

    1. Thanks, Dan, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. That line in the poem got me too.
      It’s funny, this morning it is 55 degrees out. We probably could’ve waited another day or so. We’ll take the warm up though, it’ll give Mr. a week to work on cutting and splitting more wood for the fire place.
      Wow – that seems so late for a leaf drop. I think we could do that though, there are still many trees with leaves on them.
      I enjoyed your interview with Teagan! Nice job. I’ve added her books to my TBR list. I did finally finish your 4th book. It was great 🥰

      1. Thanks for saying that, Shelley. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It does feel late, but I remember when I was working that I never got the leaves cleaned up until Thanksgiving weekend.

  4. It’s been several years since we’ve had any snow, which might mean we’ll get no snow this year, either, or we’ll really get hit with it this year. I’m hoping for the former…

  5. So many reasons to appreciate your October, Shelley. Grateful to see your neck of the woods. I cannot believe you got snow. And yet it adds such a peacefulness to the new season. I fell in love with the photo where the yellow leaf seems to be standing in the snow. Making a point maybe? “it’s still my turn”. Anyway, great use of asymmetry through the entire post. The misty morning was a favorite set. So Pretty. Have a good week.

    1. Thank you for hosting this week’s challenge, Donna. I was inspired by your words of wisdom and photos about asymmetry. I’m glad you enjoyed my take on the prompt. Yes, that leaf stood out to me too along with the misty morning 🥰😊
      I hope you have a great week too!

  6. My brother in Denver had about a foot of snow on Halloween, his poor little grandsons had no trick-or-treat this year. Boo. we actually had some fairly cool temps here in the south too but happily are back to normal low 70s now. As for me I agree, I DESPISE the time change. Dark at 5:30? No thank you!!! Here’s to spring. Fun post Shelley!

    1. I think I heard that in the news about Denver getting snow. It’s such a bummer for the kiddos when it happens on a day they want to be out trick-or-treating. We’ve had that happen here too.
      I’m glad you’re back into the normal 70s for temps so you can be out on the beach discovering fun things to take photos of.
      Yeah, this time change is so annoying. Spring will be a welcome sight.
      Thanks for stopping by, Tina, I enjoyed your take on the prompt too. So many great examples to inspire us!!

  7. PS, Tina at Travels and Trifles here, aka anonymous. WP doesn’t recognize me at your site

  8. Well I am in the minority about the time change. They keep saying they will leave it be all year around, but I doubt that will happen. As for me, once I am home from walking or errands, I am in for the day. Even when I worked on site or I have a vacation day or weekend, once I’m home I don’t go out again, so it doesn’t matter to me how early darkness falls. I didn’t care for it when I worked on site and took the bus though. With the time change, I can leave earlier in the morning again – yay for that, for about a month anyway. I like how you use the compare screen with the before/after. That is a great feature. Your little bird sitting there looks very miserable – he’d probably like you to invite him in or give him his/her own birdfeeder. The snow on the pumpkin – nice touch Mother Nature! We had snow on Halloween too. Have you donated your pumpkin to the critters yet?

    1. I wish they’d just go 1/2 way and stop the silliness of changing it an hour twice. I’m like you though, once I’m back home after being out, I’m done and ready for whatever end of the day time happens. The cats, though, Dessy is really struggling with the time change this time.
      The Image Compare block is fun. You should give it a try.
      The birds have been desperate for food. They know something is up about the weather.
      Thank you, I thought the snow on the pumpkin was a sweet photo. I’m going to donate the pumpkin this week. I’m trying to decide where it should go so I can still see it for photos. 🤔😂

      1. And we get the same spiel every six months about how you need to plan ahead with extra sleep before and afterward. I guess we adjust more readily than animals do. Right after I read your post, another blogger found her cats on the bed wanting to be fed, not quite as early as you though. It was a bit foggy again this morning as it was so warm – so the second day in a row to not get to take advantage of the time change.

        I should try Image Compare block – I have an idea where I could try it based on some pics taken yesterday – I’ll give it a whirl! The birds were probably disappointed to see the white stuff.

        I hope you get some good photo ops with that cute pumpkin. About 4-5 years ago Marge’s son carved some pumpkins and put them out on Halloween, but left them there – we had snow the first week in November. I grumbled as I missed a walk, then while outside sweeping the snow, I saw his snow-covered pumpkins and the red wet leaves peeking out of the snow – it made for some nice shots.

        1. Our poor Dessy is struggling the most. I kind of felt the pain of having to wait for workday to end yesterday. This change gets me more than the spring one.

          Yay – I hope you like the image compare.

          I think I remember those pumpkin photos you mentioned. You’re always so good at noticing your surroundings. Mr. and I made a plan as to where we’ll place the pumpkin. It’s going to be a warmer week so I might wait until next before setting it out. Except maybe the critters would enjoy unfrozen seeds. 🤔

          1. Thank you Shelley – the snow was great that day as it was gone a few hours later and seemed tolerable as I got photos out of it. I went in the house and had time to download the photos so I could write the post that same night. I liked the freezing rain and snow before I put the roses to bed for the Winter. The ice dripping down and snow was amazing to see.

  9. At last those cats paying for their keep but stopping the rug from being “moused” was a fail.
    So now we are quintuple-dipping. I am glad I was included Shelley 🙂

    1. Yes, I agree about the cats finally doing their cat jobs. As they roamed around the area when I found it, they looked quite proud of themselves.
      Yippee for quintuple-dipping. It’s fun to play along with the prompts – thanks for hosting the LastontheCard!!

  10. The only slightly ruffling thing here was that it snowed on the trick-or-treaters when they came around begging for candy. It doesn’t usually snow here until around Thanksgiving, but the kids were undeterred while we adults who sit outside on the stoop waiting for them froze our butts off.

    1. Aw, where we live we don’t get any trick-or-treaters. What was the favorite costume you saw or were they all covered with coats? Been there, done that!
      My daughter and her friends handed out beer and hotdogs for the parents. They were VERY happy with their trick-or-treating. Some kiddos even asked for hotdogs instead of the candy. 😉

  11. We had a lovely October too! And I saw great color on my trip to Ohio through PA. Glad you get to see your girls next weekend. I feel like during this is time of year, the busy-ness really ramps up. My boys have a birthday in 10 days, so I need to get on presents (and then figure out presents for Xmas too). But I just bought my Xmas cards–so one thing accomplished! Oh, and I’m impressed by your hunter-cat. All our cats ever did was run away from mice!

      1. Thank you for telling me. I could tell by your comment who it was, but, dang…I don’t know why that is happening randomly. It happened to Tina too. I think it’s a WP thing. If I ever figure it out I’m gonna do a blog post about it.

    2. Yay, that’s so wonderful that you got to see all the colors. The trees were so excited to share their glory this year.
      Yes, I’m SO excited to see the girls. We have no set plans, just to browse and hang out and stop at some book stores too.
      You’ve got a busy time coming up, hopefully the boys have told you what they want. Do they like the same things or not? My girls are 3 years apart and have birthdays the same month, as they’ve grown up they don’t want the same things as much anymore, so them making a list is a blessing!
      Wow – way to have your Christmas cards ready. I’m envious!
      The cats remain on the prowl, hopefully it was just a fluke and no more show up. I’m impressed with them too.

    1. Hi Willow – ditto to you on your lovely post. I felt all happy after reading and listening to the songs!
      Thank YOU – I appreciate the birthday wishes. It’ll be my last year of the 50s, oy…! I need all the wishes I can get 😉😊

      1. I am sending you some more!! I didn’t like my fifties very much …my sixties were much better and now I have just entered my seventies….happy days 💜💜💜

        1. Thank you!!! Aw, that’s interesting to read about the years you loved more and more as time passed. That’s inspiring, thank you for sharing. 🥰🤗

          1. Yes it’s strange…I was very stressed and unhappy in my fifties I didn’t like them …. Then life got better and I grew up 🍁🍂🍂

          2. I tend to agree that the fifties are a stressful time in life. I’m encouraged by your thoughts that it gets better in the 60s and 70s. From what I see in your posts and words of wisdom, you’re a kid at heart too! 😍🥰

    1. Thank you, Kirstin! I loved your post too – you have so many gorgeous fall photos!! Happy Anniversary to you and your hubby too!

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