Saturday, October 28, 2017

Treats in the Autumn of Our Discontent

This has been a week of autumnal treats, some of them for me, some of them for others, and some, a combo.

On Thursday, I went to a church pumpkin patch to pick up pumpkins for our Monday decorate-a-pumpkin event at school.  I decided that they would have less chance of rotting if I took them out of the bag, so I spread them across my desk:




Upon seeing this sight, one of my colleagues exclaimed, "Dr. K is working in the middle of a pumpkin patch!"  Yes indeed.

The great pumpkin quest has been a gift in several ways.  It was great to get out of the office to select the pumpkins.  I've enjoyed seeing them on my desk.  And it will be great to have a different Halloween activity for students on Monday.  Will we create something like these pumpkins from a different school and a different set of students?  Stay tuned!




Along the way, I've picked up autumnal treats at Trader Joe's for myself and others--have you seen the tiny butternut squash that's out there?  Very cute.  I forgot to get a picture before giving it away.

We had some delicious autumnal meals:  pork chops with apples and butternut squash puree--one of my favorite seasonal meals.  I made a seafood tomato sauce to go over pasta--delicious!

We've had a visit from yet another hurricane repair person.  Our cottage had some damage to the foundation when the huge tree went over.  We got good news this week:  it's fairly easy to fix and can be done from the inside. Luckily, we have concrete floors, so they can just drill down and do some filling in. The guy said that on a scale of 1-10 (10 being worst), we had damages of a 2, when it comes to the foundation.

I've been doing some writing and some sending out poetry packets, which always feels good.  I am almost done with my short story modeled after "The Things They Carried."  I'm really happy with it.  It just flowed, and that's been an unexpected autumn treat.

So, although I expect to look back and think about this autumn as one of sadness and discontent, let me also remember that there were pockets of happiness.  Here's one more picture of my desk that I particularly like:


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