The trees are starting to change, leaves are starting to drop, and the colors in the garden are beautiful.
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Bronzes and golds and garnet reds Guess it’s time to put the hammock away View from the back deck I cannot get enough of these grasses. I love the gold and copper tassels. Autumn joy sedum. It’s color just keeps getting deeper. -
The world outside is wet and gray. I hear tires spray rainwater on the slick neighborhood street as a car passes by. I sit with my slippered feet propped up on an ottoman and watch the drizzle mist my freshly planted flower boxes. I put in purple cabbages and yellow and purple pansies last week. Grass tassels droop and drip over the velvety pansy leaves. I’ve got a steaming cup of mint tea in the windowsill, along with a book to read while I drink it.
Our son is home from college this weekend, and our daughter just returned from an out of town swim meet. Life feels complete when all four of us are here. I feel a warm fullness, and a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. I love these people; they’re my favorites.
I made brownies and blueberry muffins for our son, and I stocked up on some of his favorite foods, like fresh pineapple, and orange-mango juice. He and his roommate have a small fridge in their door room, but they can’t be bothered to go to the grocery store to buy stuff like juice. He’s been wearing my WordPress sweatpants since he got home because he forgot to bring any sweatpants, and this is sweatpant weather. I probably should just send him home with those, and get myself another pair.
The cats are happy we’re all here. They’ve got lots of laps to keep them warm during the day, and feet to sleep on at night. I’m happy too.
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We have all the windows open, and the world outside is cool and wet. We’ll get a lot of rain tonight. I’m glad — it’ll water in my mums. I’m wearing a flannel shirt, jeans, and socks, and I considered pulling on my slippers. We’re not quite to slipper season yet, though. We’ve got freshly stacked firewood for when that day comes, and judging by the current weather and the flowers in bloom in the garden, that day may be soon.
I took my camera for a walk around the flower beds this morning before the rain began. We are in full on caterpillar season. I need to cut back some of the dead stuff but I don’t have the energy for that right now. So let’s just pretend it’s not there.
Goldenrod and mums 
Lantana and goldenrod 
Monarch caterpillar on nepeta 
Autumn joy sedum 
Swallowtail caterpillar on rue 
Pink cleome 
Front beds 
Zinnias taking over 
Monarch caterpillars out back, grasses and mums out front -
I’ve felt very fragile since we dropped our son off at college. I’ve had trouble sleeping, and I feel jittery and strung out. Work has been hectic, which has been hard. My team lead encouraged me to be gentle with myself in the coming weeks because she knew this would be an emotional time for our family, but sometimes work and the world don’t really allow for going easy. There’s too much to do. I’m too far behind. I got Covid two weeks before our son left, and I could not afford to lose that time at work, and I’m still trying to catch up.
I did finish something at work on Friday that had been weighing on me for weeks, and that kept getting shoved to the bottom of my ever-growing list, so I was at least able to sleep this weekend having finally gotten a draft out for review. I feel better after sleeping past 4am on Saturday and then again on Sunday.
My chest still feels thick sometimes despite feeling otherwise recovered from Covid. I mowed the lawn on Friday and it wore me out. Sunday I wanted to get out of the house and out of my head, and I wanted to do that in the woods, on a hike, with my camera. I didn’t feel up for anything strenuous, and it was hot out, so my husband picked a short, flattish hike a little higher up in the mountains where it would be cooler: the War Spur trail near Mountain Lake Lodge, where Dirty Dancing was filmed.
The trail was shaded and green, and the air smelled fresh, especially when we dipped down into a stream-bed where clear water trickled over mossy stones. The hike is known for having lots of mushrooms, and we probably saw two dozen different kinds. They’re delicate little things, fragile but grounded. Those earthy mushrooms, the fat acorns, and a smattering of red leaves in green ferns were what I needed to feel some peace.
Mushrooms and moss, I love the combination (and the little mushroom hiding in the lower right) 
Gills and dirt. 
Puffball in the understory. 
Eight different yellow, brown, copper, and toast-colored mushrooms 
I love the gills and cup shape, and the moss and green leaves 
Fall is coming, and I’m happy about that. -
Our son’s room is half packed. His door is open and he’s not here.
He moves out tomorrow. Early in the morning, we’ll drive him the two and a half hours to Charlottesville. We’ll cart duffle bags and laundry baskets full of clothes and Twin XL linens to his dorm room, help him unpack, maybe run around buying stuff we forgot. And then we’ll drive away. I’ll likely sob. He’ll wave and say “SEE YA!” then start his new life.
It’s strange to simultaneously celebrate and mourn not being needed anymore. As parents, our job is to prepare our children to leave us. He feels ready to go out on his own, so I think we’ve maybe done that. And that feels good, and I’m super proud of him and excited for him. The whole world is out there to discover! But it’s hard to let go. His door will stay open after tomorrow, and he won’t come back home to close it. There will only be three of us at the dinner table each night. Tubbles will walk around meowing, looking in every room for him. She won’t find him anywhere. I’ll scratch his Reeses Puffs, American cheese, and bagel requests off my grocery list template.
He’s out with friends right now on his last day. A couple of them have already moved into their dorms at the college here in town. Others will scatter across the east coast in the coming weeks. When he comes home this evening, we’ll go out to dinner together, and he’ll like be packing deep into the night.
At 7 am, we’ll drive away with a car full of him and his stuff. And then we’ll drive home empty.
Good thing we still have our daughter at home.
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We’re visiting family in Florida. Yesterday, I woke early to walk on the beach before it got boiling hot. I took my camera with me, and it turns out I didn’t end up walking very much. I wanted to play with some of the basics I’m learning in my photography class — motion, leading lines, contrast — so I ended up stopping every few feet to snap photos. I also wanted to mix it up a little with my photographs; I’ve got a thousand shots of the Gulf of Mexico being the Gulf of Mexico in it’s beautiful blues and greens. I switched to black and white, and I had fun capturing the beach in a totally different way.
Raked beach, Siesta Key, FL 
Volleyball net, Siesta Key, FL 
Morning walker, Siesta Key, FL 
Seagulls, Siesta Key, FL 
Lounge chairs, Siesta Key, FL 
Sunset, Turtle Beach, FL I started a new photography blog to help me curate some of my favorite photos and also track the camera settings on them so I can learn. It’s at photo.andreabadgley.blog if you’re interested.
