Autumnal Blues

Now that fall is impinging on my life it is time to look around me and see where the new turn of the year is taking me. My little studio was so much fun and so much a haven this summer. It was a little hot in the late afternoon with the sun beating down. But the tile floors are always cool. Now in the autumn the tile floors are still cool. There is less natural light inside the casita. I find it less welcoming in the coolness than it was. My two tables pushed up against each other are full of the projects I am working on. The floors have not been swept. I think it is my own mood and not the studio.

Autumn is a hard season for me. It can be glorious, but it is still the harbinger of things to come. If Autumn is hard then winter is even harder. As I age, winter, never welcomed in my life, is more ominous and arduous than ever before. The cold creeps up my body and lethargy follows close behind.

Now on the cusp of cold weather I take a look around me. First I am working on my bee book in the studio. I ran into a snag two days ago and it is taking me a little time to re-plan and regroup. I made the sampler cards that fit into the page pockets of the star book too large by half an inch. I made three of them before I was finished with the book itself and realized the size problem. I have now thought it out and have come up with a solution. I have to correct it the hard way starting over with the sampler cards making them 2.5 X 2.5 inches. Too bad.

Second, I am working on the national correspondence course on color with Carole Rinard. We met yesterday to hammer out Lesson 1. We did good work and I have several pages of notes and corrections to go through. It is always harder near the bottom of the well to look up and crawl out. At least I can work on the thing inside. My feet don't get too cold inside the house.

Third, in my head I am planning out the classes I am going to propose for the EGA 2010 national seminar. Those are due in February, so I have lots of time, maybe.

And fourth, today I am going to have to take my little kitten, Buster, to the animal shelter. This lies heavy on my heart. Everything else seems hard to do because I have this task to do first of all. I rescued Buster a week ago. He was cowering out north of the house with Cosmo stalking him. Buster was only about six weeks old and Cosmo is a sleek, full-grown male cat with claws and teeth. I had seen a new black and white cat around, but did not realize that she came with a kitten. These are cats that someone has abandoned. The kitten was starving and he loved human company. So I took him inside. I thought that Cosmo would reconcile himself to this new sweet little stranger. But I am sure this will not happen. Cosmo attacks him on sight, every time. So after a week of feeding Buster up, a week of sleeping with him, and teaching him not to use his claws on humans, I am taking him away. It breaks my heart.