Tomorrow I’m heading back home for a few days in Massachusetts to play a little fall golf, walk in some gaily-colored woods and enjoy the company of friends and family. Who knows? I might even get to take a walk along an empty beach on a bright, crisp October afternoon – one of my absolute favorite things to do.

October is OK here in Arizona – the real heat has broken but that doesn’t mean you won’t work up quite a sweat during an afternoon walk. But there’s no color to speak of. And where frequent commenter Jana lives in Kentucky, you get the color and there’s still some heat there. But true October for me is back in New England where bright skies and cool days bring back thoughts of the summer being over and winter just over the horizon. Every warm day seems precious, and there’s a tinge of sadness walking in the woods amidst all the fallen leaves.

A perfect time, I think, for a Robert Frost poem:

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if the were all,
Whose elaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost–
For the grapes’ sake along the all.

See y’all in the Eastern Time Zone. I’m making US Airways connections in Philadelphia, so keep me in your prayers. 🙂