Trying to Stop and Smell the Leaves

Anyone else feel as though October is blowing by a little too quickly?

I know my sense of timing this year has been off given everything that happened with my mom. The period of time from her diagnosis in early February to death at the end of June seemed as though it went by incredibly fast but also as though time stood still. Since she died, time just seems to have sped up, and that we're in the middle of October is almost unimaginable.

Granted, when you're busy, time does seem to pass more quickly, and it's been incredibly busy around here. We're in the middle of a grant cycle at my other job (different funding opportunities crop up throughout the year, but spring and fall are two of the larger grant cycles, so I've been quite busy on that front), and we're getting closer to the holidays, so even though I decided that I wasn't going to be do any gift making this year, I think we all know I won't be able to keep that particular resolution. So, in addition to working on several fall projects (the Sherwood Scarf, Autumn Doodle Cowl, and another Bean Stitch Pumpkin are the ones I've played with over the last few days, but there's also the Raven quilt I've been working on--only two more blocks to go before I can start on the borders), life just hasn't slowed down lately, which means there hasn't been time to stop and smell the leaves.

Do you do that, too? Go outside (when it isn't raining) in the fall and just inhale that earthy leaf smell? It's one of the best smells in the world, in my opinion, and we only get it for a short period of time before the first snow (which has an entirely different and distinct smell, if you haven't noticed).

With our meteorologists telling us that we might see some snow on Tuesday, there really isn't a lot of time left to smell the leaves, which makes me a little sad. So, I'm trying to plan to have a few minutes this weekend when I'm not working to step outside with a mug of hot apple cider (with a cinnamon stick, of course), wearing my favorite malabrigo Rios cardigan (the Plum Wine cardigan in the colorway "Diana"), and just smell the leaves before it's too late. How about you?