Issue 14
Dear Friends and Family,
If you haven’t checked our web-site lately, you owe it to yourself to take a look. We now have the deck cam working and updating every 30 seconds! You might be lucky enough to catch a shot of me in action feeding the fish or watering the plants. Also added is a link to the pier cam so you can see what the ocean is doing by the Horace Caldwell Pier. You might see some surfer dudes. Cowabunga man!
We just said goodbye to our first guests, Joan and Phil, who went home well tanned, well fed, and totally relaxed. It was fun showing them the island and going on shopping expeditions. After Labor Day, the stores and restaurants here are open when ever they feel like being open, so it was an adventure in shopping. Hey, it’s the island way of life here. And once you show them the beach, the Marine Science Institute, the Birding Center, and take them on a ferry ride, that’s it. But they amused themselves mostly by taking walks on the beach and seeing what gifts the ocean was giving up that day. Phil found a pair of sunglasses and Joan brought home buckets of seashells and pink barnacles. We never did have to resort to giving them crayons and paper bags to play with. See attached photo of the happy couple.
I am looking forward to our trip to Cleveland next week and getting excited about seeing all our old friends. I love autumn and hope the leaves will be turning and the weather will be fallish because the weather here is still very much like summer…hot! No hurricane threats so far, thank God.
In honor of the change of season I have attached a copy of my essay, “Portrait of Autumn” for your edification. I wrote it last year in my English class at Tri-C and it is one of my favorites, hope you like it.
Love, Janis
EXTENDED BODY:
Portrait of Autumn
“Winter is an etching, spring a water color, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.”-Stanley Horowitz
I am in love with autumn. Autumn is my flamboyant, fleeting lover. Mellow, mature, yet madly passionate, he teases me every year with subtle signs of his return. Even before the autumnal equinox, I sense him coming, as all about me nature is deftly getting ready for his revisit. I catch sight of the geese overhead, honking and heading south in their V formations, and watch the fidgety squirrels hoarding their nuts. I notice how the sunlight slants differently through the windows and the days become shorter. The skies wear a deeper blue, the clouds don a darker gray, and the sunset slips into a honey toned glow. Then colorful heaps of leaves begin to collect in the corners at my front door, like greeting cards and love letters from autumn.
Autumn is sensuous. I love the chilly “sweater weather,” wearing soft flannel shirts and floppy wool socks and spending cozy evening hours cuddled by a fire. I’m crazy about the smells of autumn: the nutty tang of the woods, a hint of leaves burning, and pungent tree-ripened fruit at roadside stands. I love the tastes of autumn: steamy clam bakes, simmering soups, spicy chili, and hot apple cider. I love gazing at a bright-orange harvest moon, the crunchy walks, and the crispness in the air. Most of all, I love the delirious profusion of falling leaves. Wind tossed and irrepressible, across roads and lawns they tumble and scamper like overexcited children let out for recess.
The season is a festival for leaves. First the sumacs put on their lipstick red flush and the Virginia creeper vines adorn the trees with wine-colored garlands. Then the maples don their red autumn uniforms and stand like noble sentries along the streets. After the maples’ brilliant display the oaks take center stage dressed in their swirling splendor of gold and crimson. Every day is one exuberant exclamation of bright yellows and oranges, deep reds and purple, celebrating the glory of creation.
But autumn is also the end of summer. There is a look of resignation to the garden and a sharp smell of surrender in the air. Once sturdy plants are now hunched over, pale and weak, offering their final fruits, and saying their farewells. “It was a marvelous party, darling, a stunning summer, we must do it again next year. Oh, is that a bit of gray I see on your crown? Yes, it does make you look distinguished.” As it is a finale, it is also a time for reflection.
So while I marveled at the glorious autumn splendor, I began to wonder what makes leaves change colors and found this explanation from The World Book. “In late summer and early fall, a disk of cells slowly grows near the leaf’s stem, gradually blocking the flow of water to the leaf. At the same time, chlorophyll begins to break down. As this happens, other vibrant colors previously hidden in the leaf are revealed.” This simple definition deepened my love for autumn.
In autumn’s portrait I catch a glimpse of the progress of my own life. Richer hues held unseen within the green leaves of summer are gradually revealed by autumn’s bittersweet embrace. Despite hints of the harshness of the winter to come and the realization that summer days are a wistful memory, autumn is a wonderfully vivid and beautiful season of maturity. Amidst that beauty I find myself in the autumn of my years, gradually revealing a variety of amazing qualities that were once hidden and unknown, and adding new colors to the mosaic of my life.