Positively Changing Seasons

by Mauverneen

By all these lovely tokens September days are here, With summer's best of weather And autumn's best of cheer. Helen Hunt Jackson

Summer is winding down. We are headed for my favorite season of the year - Autumn. The time when nights are cool, days are warm, the leaves turn glorious colors, and pumpkins start popping up on porches.

I am done with hot and humid, I am so ready for a light sweater.

My garden didn't do so well this year. I planted the usual - green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. I am getting enough tomatoes, but the bugs have eaten more beans than I have, the zucchini shriveled up and disappeared after only producing about six vegetables, and I can't seem to grow a decent cucumber no matter what I do. I'm going to have to get some advice on those for next year.

Normally, I am giving zucchini away, like everyone else, and generally have enough tomatoes to can a few bottles, but this year? Bah! It is no doubt my own fault. Due to a severe case of sciatica that went on for two months, I wasn't able to do much. Like weed the garden. Luckily, I still have plenty from last year's harvest. 

This time of year everyone starts thinking of the holidays coming up. I'm getting a jump start. The living room is getting painted right now and the kitchen will be right behind it. Hopefully that will all be done before everyone else starts thinking of spiffing up for the company everyone's expecting. 

It's cooler this morning, the breeze feels wonderful and I'm in good spirits. Maybe I'll have a tomato sandwich for lunch.  It's a Positively Grand Tuesday!

It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn. 

 -B. C. Forbes

As always, words and photos are my own, and require permission to reprint.

However, feel free to share the blog in it's entirety. In fact, I encourage it!

Interested in photo prints? Contact me! maureenblevins@yahoo.com

See more photos at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-mauverneen-blevins.html

and visit my website:  mauveonthemove.com

Positively Beautiful

by Mauverneen

"The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself." - Wallace Stevens

In my last blog, I wrote about getting away - a trip to Utah. I mentioned the fact that one should be open to new experiences and the fact that there is always more to see than you came to see.

We (my daughter and I) had some things planned which didn't happen and we happened to do some things that we hadn't planned. All in all, it was a good trip!

The road was an old Pony Express Route, the day was stormy at times, and our cameras were at the ready. A large portion of Utah is public land and there are several herds of wild mustangs. Be still my heart. As a young girl I read every horse story I could find. Wild horses are a treasure.

We happened upon a herd pretty early on. From a distance we could see some black spots in the landscape. Rocks? Cows? Horses? We got lucky - they were horses! We drove closer and stopped when we were parallel to them, pulling over to the side of the gravel road. We needn't have bothered. We saw maybe three cars on that road the entire day.

Getting out slowly, so as not to startle them, we reveled in our find. They were beautiful! A bit of a distance from the road, they lifted their heads, a bit curious, but obviously convinced we were harmless, they went back to grazing. Storm clouds loomed in the distance and we could hear thunder. They began to move off, most likely to seek shelter from the coming storm, and we continued our drive along the route.

We saw antelope, awesome scenery, and later, as we made our way back along the desolate road, a lone horse, casually making his way - somewhere.

The clouds, which looked so very threatening, moved on, giving us very little rain, but spectacularly dramatic vistas. As we came back to where we had seen our horses, a rainbow touched the earth. It was truly the most vivid rainbow I've ever seen.

The gold at the end of this rainbow was obvious - the horses.

As always, words and photos are my own, and require permission to reprint.

However, feel free to share the blog in it's entirety. In fact, I encourage it!

Interested in photo prints? Contact me! maureenblevins@yahoo.com

See more photos at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-mauverneen-blevins.html

and visit my website:  mauveonthemove.com