It's the most wonderful time of the year

I know most people prefer the summer, spring, and winter, but I am all about the autumn (or maybe only when it's happening since I'm quite fond of the other seasons as well). But it's like the world is snuggling down into bed for the night (winter) and covering itself with a big honking blanket of leaves. I'm more of a fleece person, but whatever works for Ma Nature.It's funny how you forget between one autumn and the next how gorgeous it really is when the leaves change.

Cuyahoga Valley foliage - how to create a free slideshow

(pictures by me)

It's not just the colors that make me love fall, either. I was taking out the garbage last night before I went to bed around 11pm and I was struck by how different it is at night during the fall. Everything is going dormant and you can sense that in the stillness all around but, at the same time, every breath of air carries a dozen smells and sounds. There's something almost alive about the way the night sounds in the autumn with the leaves slithering over each other and sound carrying for miles and miles. This time of year, you can even hear the trains go through Akron from here. And, since they moved the pound a couple months ago, I can only assume those aren't domestic dogs I'm hearing howling in the PM. Brother-in-law says the coyotes are getting fairly bold this year, getting near their house and everything. Which is a shame since I kind of love moonlit strolls through wild areas but I'm too sensible to do it where there may be potentially dangerous wild animals. Still, I can enjoy the night weather almost as much from my own living room, so won't complain too much :)

"This world is but a canvas for our imaginations." (Thoreau)

How's this for a color-palate?

I love the contrast of those first two. It's been SO dry here lately and this weekend's been the first real rain we've had in ages, so the grass is brown and the sky is threatening but the leaves have finally started to turn. Here are some of the brighter colors that we'd normally be seeing right, left and center by now:

On a related note, I made a wreath to hang on my front door:

I took dozens of pics in the Valley today but those three are all I'm posting for now. More soon, probably. Updates about the kitties soon as well, I should think. Spider has adopted foster brother Henry and is being soooo lovey with him.

Colors of the wind (no, not Disney-related)

A friend sent me this video and I just had to share it.

It's by a gentleman named Simon Christen and it's one of the most lovely things I've seen in a long while.

The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

The video's wonderful and has me wanting to play with color palates for jewelry. Darn it, muses, fall is underway and we haven't even finished playing with those color combinations yet. Stop being all ADD and finish one project before you demand another!!! Even if some of the colors in the video would be stunning together...

a few thoughts on the subject of sloths

Anyone who reads this regularly will realize fairly quickly that I am a random person. My family and I used to joke that, if I were a superhero, my Superhero name would be Random Factoid Girl and my superpower would be Information Dump (dazes opponents for several rounds). My blog entries will reflect that facet of my personality. 

Today's random thinky thoughts are brought to you by the letter S for "sloth". Enjoy :)

Sloths are cute. They also have pretty long claws for their size. Seriously, look at those things:

It's a good thing they're so adorable and lazy or else they'd just be scary with the claws. Now imagine one twenty feet tall.

Megatherium, the giant ground sloth, was 20 feet (6 meters) tall and weighed in at about 8 tons. Those would have been some big honking claws. Scary to think about them running around the back yard but they did coexist with humans for a short while. To put it in perspective, some paleontologists think that they used to chase saber toothed tigers away from their kills. The jury's out on this since they were predominantly herbivores and not everyone's convinced they ever scavenged meat -- still, daunting animals. Yummy ones, too, presumably, considering that they flourished in South America for millions of years only to be extinct within a few thousand years of humans making it to this side of the Pond. I think that's probably the downside of being the biggest bad boy on the block. You can't run and hide very well and hungry hunter/gathers look at you and think "all you can eat buffet". I will not be commenting on what this says about human nature since this is a happy place.

Still, fortunately for lovers of cuteness everywhere, their smaller, more adorable cousins continue to flourish.

Sloth, it's not just a deadly sin any more :) 

(Random endnote: according to my sister, the freakiest toes in the animal kingdom undisputedly belong to the chameleon. She swears they're actually the descendents of pets accidentally left on this planet by aliens millions of years ago.)

Dark Side, here I come...

I've finally been convinced to start a blog despite the fact that my life just hasn't been interesting in years.

sister: "You should start a blog."
self: "Uh, okay. Why?"
sister: "You just should. You're creative and things."
self: "M'okay." 
(Easily influenced? Me? Just a tad.)

So I guess this is the part where I say stuff about myself in case anyone I don't already know decides to read this?

I'm between 18 and 80 (unless I'm older, of course), female, live alone with my thoughts and my cats somewhere in the Corn Belt and Bible Belt but, fortunately, not quite in the Snow Belt. Oh, and according to a quick Google search, I also live in the Rust Belt and the Salt Belt. I tend to just think of myself as living five minutes from the gorgeous Cuyahoga Valley National Park (you can put away the atlas; this means I live in Northeast Ohio). Trees, hills, valleys, caves, rivers, marshes and critters galore. What more can a girl ask for?

There's such inspiration in nature. It always reminds me of the first few lines of "Auguries of Innocence" by Blake:

To see a world in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wildflower
To hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour

The world's macro, so huge it's almost impossible to comprehend, but a creative spirit can turn all that beauty and wonder into something tangible that can be enjoyed even if you don't have a National Park right out your back door. Whether it's a poem or a photo or a piece of jewelry or flower arrangement, I think it's a gift we've been given as humans that we can take nature and use it as an inspiration for something that can be enjoyed by everyone.

So this is basically a place where I can celebrate that (I need to celebrate more in my life).