In Between Times

The in-between time...when you are neither here or there has arrived at the lake cabin.  

The leaves are turning but it appears it is not going to be a splendid colorful autumn this year.  Two years ago we were mesmerized by the color.  But last year and this...the colors have been muted and many leaves have fallen without much color at all.  Everyone has a theory: it is too cold, too wet, or too dark or some combination.  Indeed it has not not been memorable for weather this summer. 

On the roads slippery leaves pave a way through the tunnels of dark dry ferns.  Day are definitely shorter and we rise in the dark many mornings...lingering over the hot coffee in hopes of seeing the thin sunshine arrive to bring some color to the forest.   

We drift now, hubby and I, just between the time of summer's dimming pleasures and the crisp cusp of autumn.  Hints of the coming winter are around us now.  The loons, hummingbirds and ducks have flown and the song birds seem to have disappeared. 
So the mornings are very quiet now.  When you walk you mostly just hear the leaves crunching underfoot.  Vs of geese fly honking overhead.  

We now face the inevitable and unloved task of packing and closing up.  It involves winterizing appliances, cleaning out cupboards and fridge and draining the pipes.  Boats come out of the water, piers get stacked on the shore and lawn mowers stowed away.  The list gets checked off as we go along.  

So many things we thought would get completed didn't...I never seemed to have enough time to write or draw or paint.  But there were plenty of times for laughter, friends, family.  We got the porch finally enclosed and with the help of the kids, painted.   

And although the  long, warm afternoons on the pier we love were severely limited this year, there were enough to make good memories.  We know enough at our age to prize the moments and the days.  

I hope to accomplish a few more things in the studio yet this autumn.  We have a week before we get into the serious countdown.  We will say good byes to lake friends in the next weeks. We will enjoy Greg's Model Train Club show in Hazelhurst this weekend and hopefully take a fall drive up to Land o Lakes for gallery visits.  

Susan and I are seriously contemplating doing the Inktober Drawing challenge again.  It will start on Sunday.