Memories of summer, signs of fall

My husband John and I spent last night in the cosy cabin near Blacksburg, VA where our daughter Kathe lives with her husband Jim. We drove down so that John could celebrate his birthday by attending a Virginia Tech game with Kathe. I came along for the visit, but not the game. No point wasting money on a ticket for someone who will wince at every tackle, grimace at shouts and cheers, and end up calculating random statistics our of sheer boredom.

So I didn't don Hokie maroon and orange--although I saw plenty of it--but rather my standard shades of blue and purple, along with this pair of earrings that I made after Kathe joined us last summer at the beach. We gathered lots of shell fragments during our wanders along the shore. The purples were my favorites. I tried to photograph them dangling from the mobile that Kathe's cousin Marianne sent as a wedding gift from Alaska, but the light and angles made it tricky. Ties to family, ties to seasons past, ties to places we hold dear. I see them all when I visit this daughter of mine.

Just behind their cabin I found more reminders of summer, a pair of our kayaks nestled among the fall leaves.

While Kathe and John enjoyed the football game, I wandered through some shops in downtown Blacksburg, a town peopled by generations all wearing maroon and orange--babies in onesies and fleece, college students in camo and caps, couples in matching nylon jackets, sweatshirted senior citizens carrying flags.

I headed back to the cabin, and took the dogs for a walk through the fallen leaves, enjoying the crisp autumn air. Off in the distance I could hear a loud-speaker blaring. I wandered back to sit and read in the adirondack chair that Jim built, enjoying the colors and sounds of fall.