New England

On our way home from JT’s race on Saturday, we stopped to see some local Connecticut history sites.  I found this tidy and well-preserved town library in the Last Green Valley quite charming.

Fall is in full display in my part of the country and soon enough even the bluest of skies will be cold.  As Fall yields to Winter, time outside on a lovely day is a treat to embrace.

Race Day!

On Saturday, JT’s team ran a race at Harness Memorial Park in Connecticut.  The course cuts along the Atlantic Ocean and it’s a pretty place to watch a race.  JT likes the course because he ran is personal best there last season.  He ran hard on Saturday and we were glad to cheer him on.

His time wasn’t as good as he hoped.  Several of the runners took a spill at the start of the course and JT was running on a sore calf that might signal a more serious injury.

But the day was sunny and the team engaged in their post-race swim in the Atlantic.

There was a picnic for families and nothing quite cheers a mama’s heart like the sight of a table full of boys eating like wolves.

We even made a rare picture of the three of us together.

Seeing JT race always makes me glad.  He’s doing what he loves with teammates who have the making of life long friends.  There is laughter and pleasure in one another’s achievements.  I know he’s at school that makes him happy and proud; there is such comfort in that knowledge.

Fall Foliage

My school’s campus is located amongst the woods that line the western edge of the Delaware & Raritan Canal and the Raritan River.  Though we are very much in the suburbs, this patch of nature along the waterway is thick and wherever possible, it’s preserved all over the campus.  I’ve seen herons along the pond, deer on the lawns, and there is often a campus hawk patrolling the perimeter.

This beauty is part of my every day and I appreciate it so much.  Earlier this week, I was on campus before sunrise to send off some field trips.  As the sun rose and I waited for the last of the students to arrive on campus for the day’s adventures, I walked alongside the sidewalk outside the Middle School, intent on the quiet and fresh air.  This view is the daily scene outside of my office.  I never tire of it.

From the looks of things, the leaves have just begun to change.  But on the grass, it looks like things are well underway.

I never tire of this view and that’s very happy!

History in My Backyard

This morning, all of my Middle School  students head out for field trips.  Grade 6 heads north to the Farm School in Massachusetts, a tradition that creates memories (and stories!) that last a lifetime.  Grade 8 heads south to Harper’s Ferry, Antietam, and Gettysburg; to see Civil War sites they’ve been studying in History class.  7th grade and I are headed out for each of the next three days to see local history sites related to the American Revolution.

The last two days of school have been consumed by the excited energy these adventures entail.  In a way, the last two days have been harder than the trips that start today.  Not that the field trips won’t exhaust the adults - they will - but the energy of doing is easier to manage than the energy of prospective fun.

T and I have spent hours checking out the sites that the students and I will now visit in the next few days.  Some of them are gems that my students drive by on their way to school.  Others are a few miles away, treasures of Revolutionary War history.  I’m excited to share this history, which seems exotic to me, a kid who grew up in California, far away from George Washington and the Patriots.  That history is in our backyard now and it’s time for some adventures!

Maple Tree

This tall maple tree grows in a yard just around the block from my house.  When the time for seasonal changes approaches, it’s one of the first trees to change.  The Fall leaves are splendid.  

I am the sort of person who has favorite trees everywhere she goes.  This stately maple is one of them; a treat I see on my daily drive.  In my mind, there’s magic to be found when I spot an especially noble tree.   That’s happy!

Thoughts Alongside a Random School Bus

Most days, I leave for school by 7:15 and the drive is busy with my fellow commuters, many of them familiar to me after years of this morning journey.  Yesterday, I found myself driving to work later then usual thanks to a professional day in lieu of classes.  My usual commuter buddies were long gone but the school bus crowd was present.  Traffic is slower when school busses are around and so it was that at each light, I found myself alongside a bus headed to a local middle school.

Alongside each window were students headed to their school day.  I saw kids sleeping against the window.  I saw kids in conversation with one another.  In another window sat a kid resting his notebook against the seat I’m front of him, completing some homework.  In a few windows sat boys and girls peering outside the bus.  

I spend my days in the company of middle schoolers and I’m well-aware of the ways in which they occupy their time.  More than most people, I know the hopes and dreams they nurture, sometimes out loud and sometimes secretly.  I know the ways that they can be good and kind.  I know the ways in which they can be unruly and mean.  As that little microcosm of my world turned into the school, I imagined the students within collecting their things (and leaving a few behind….they are middle schoolers after all).  I thought of them exiting the bus to face the school day.  Some of them excited; some of the them sad; most of them somewhere in between.  All of them likely to feel a whole bunch more emotions over the course of their day.

I drove on but I thought of them all day, sending them good thoughts and the hope that their days would have more joy than despair; that they would have the courage to persevere when the path is rough.  I want that for all the children I see; those in my classes and those on busses that pass me by.  For all the children in our world, if I’m being honest.  It seems like such a small wish to make, the least we can give them.  I know that it’s not.

October Front Porch

It’s possible to see my front porch Halloween plan as excessive in its enthusiasm.  I don’t see it that way…..Halloween is awfully hard to resist and knowing that the front porch will have more visitors than usual this month makes me especially enthusiastic.  Pumpkin and gourd season does that to me.

There is a Halloween flag and some hanging mums.

All of the porch is on Halloween.

There are plenty of pumpkins and mums, of course.

Days are still warm enough to sit out here with a book and I find time to do that whenever I can.  Then I hear crunchy leaves being stirred and it is like Fall is just plain showing off.

That the end of the month will bring costumed children in search of candy to my front door is simply icing on the Halloween cake.  That’s spooky!

Vermont

Last weekend, T and drove north to watch JT run in a race in Williamstown, Massachusetts, a town in the Berkshires just along the Vermont border.  The weather was glorious, JT ran a good race, and I got to visit Vermont.  I'd never been and was excited to cross that state off my bucket list.  As expected, it was lovely.  

In both Vermont and Massachusetts, the leaves were just beginning to turn.  

We went to Bennington Pottery, which I loved.

We stopped at several roadside farm stands.  In New Jersey at this time of year, the farm stands are crowded with families.  In Vermont, there were so many farm stands that none were overwhelmingly busy.  We enjoyed the adventure and scored some squash, as one does.  How could I resist?

One stand had lined up rows and rows of freshly-picked pumpkins along the edge of the woods.  It was tidy and neat.

I love pumpkin season and I was charmed.

My bucket list is now filled with more things to do in the Berkshires and Vermont.  

That's happy!  

Seasons

On Sunday morning after two days spent in New England, I took my coffee and book out to the front porch in the morning.  It was sunny and pleasant, warm, but but hot.  There was a slight breeze rustling the fallen  leaves of the neighborhood sycamore trees.  Birds were chirping and in the distance I could near the woodpecker that lives across the street.  It was pleasant and as I sat in the rocker I read and daydreamed about the pumpkins and mums I will set out for October.  I thought of the coming end the front porch season, a transition I only accept because it means warms sweaters and then the twinkling lights and fresh pines smells of December.

I’d made a generous pot of coffee and as I refilled my cup, the breeze picked up and blew clouds over the sun.  The birds began a nap and the only sounds were crickets and rustling leaves.  It was as if my thoughts about October had conjured the arrival of fall.  As much as I’m sad about the passing of flip flop season, I’m looking forward to the seasonal change.  The defined seasons are one of the nicest parts of life in New Jersey and I enjoy the transition to a new season as much as I enjoy the season themselves.  

October 1 Fairy Garden

For 2019, I tried a new method for weed control in the Fairy Garden strip along the fence.  It seems pretty clear that it has not been a success as the weeds are in charge.

Part of this garden strip has always been shady and hidden and while I enjoy the secret in the shade, I think it’s fair to say that I like my shade in the form of ivy, hostas and the peach tree, not the weeds.  

October is always the point when the fairies tuck away for the cold, and in the next week I will clean off the houses and store them away for the season.  Come next Spring, I’ll have a better weed-control system in place so that I can once again enjoy the fairy garden.  I’ll daydream and plan all Winter for this transition.  I’ll likely add a few more things for the fairy residents to enjoy.  This planning will keep me happy in the Winter cold and that’s happy.