November, Soft and Calming

Ah, November. If November was a color it would be brown~ a rich, golden brown. Coppers and caramels, honey and ginger gently create the palate of this blended, cozy month. It's one of those in-between months where the display of October's fury has simmered down to a smolder, a warm amber glow, where the last of fair weather chores are rushed into Indian Summer days and we are chased inside earlier and earlier by frost covered nights.

Halloween candy has been collected, and scattered from pillow case sacks to the living room floor and has been traded and ram sacked and sorted. Bits of monster noses, wire fairy wings, and plastic vampire teeth have been packed away with the gum paste and grease paint only to be mixed with imagination and fantasy to become something even more terrible a short year from now. Sliced pumpkin faces begin to sag and rot as mold eats its way through the yellow damp flesh.

November is where Fall becomes Autumn. The sky looses it's brilliancy and turns melancholy. Snow clouds dance against the cold blue vast and the sun's rays reach, straining to get into the nooks and crannies of the world.  Most of the trees, by now, are naked, except for the stubborn oaks that will hold them sometimes through winter and shake them down in the spring for a second round of raking. The grass is dying and the world is tucking in for winter. The gloves and hats are taken out of summer hiding, as the steam of our breath becomes visible on chilly, coffee cup mornings. It's a simple month. Take a deep breath, the brown is welcome, for it will soon turn to white.