"If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees."

Khalil Gibran

"Alone with myself

The trees bend

to caress me

The shade hugs

my heart."

Candy Polgar

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

fall seems to be making it's presence (presents?!?) known more every day. a chill in the morning air and afternoons beckoning with wonderfully mellow sunshine in a sky that is somehow bluer than at any other time of the year.

the hollyhocks thrive during this time of the year. while photographing them i was intent on noticing the glorious light and the deep red color of these particular stalks. it was only after i uploaded the shots onto the computer that i also seen the hollyhocks had another visitor at the time . . . a surprise that made me smile.

you may have noticed that i haven't been posting much and have been pretty slow to answer most comments. this is due to most of my extra time going towards preparing myself and my household for my upcoming hip surgery. the date has been set and during the second week in october i will go in and have it done.  i'll be blogging quite a bit less for approximately the next six weeks. it may be a shorter amount of time but there is no way for me to really know and amazingly at the six week mark the holidays will be upon us all and so that may slow me down as well. 

in an effort to be more prepared i've been trying to get some of my holiday creating done early . . . i do hope to be able to share that here in my blog in bits and pieces as i can as well as do some blog-hopping to see what everyone else is up to. i may be a bit of a lurker, checking it all out when i can . . . hang in there with me. i'll do my best.

today's gifts included:

• time with the trees
• the autumn afternoon warmth
• freshly picked corn from the garden for dinner
• that blue BLUE sky