striptease

This autumn has been uncharacteristically long and mild. By mid-October, in this neck of the woods, by now the trees have usually been stripped of their leaves by fierce autumn winds, and whatever die-hards manage to cling on through the winds are shivered off when the mercury plummets. This year, the trees are giving us a slow, sensual striptease, languorously plucking at their their jewel-toned costumes and sending the garments fluttering to the ground one brilliant gem at a time. Slowly, slowly we've progressed through this lovely autumn - it's been just this past week I've noticed the trees are standing about scantly clad, at long last showing more limb than leaf.

Today, people were mirroring the trees, showing a little leg in shorts and t-shirts while crunching leaves beneath their feet, soaking in every last drop of this honeyed sun. I'm glad it has taken its sweet time to begin the descent into winter this year ~ I needed the extra time to prepare for the long cold winter ahead, cultivating and harvesting a hearty crop of friends and memories to see me through the coming season. But the long-term forecast shows us hovering at daytime highs just above the freezing mark within two weeks. Though I'm hoping it isn't ice-freezing cold for Halloween, I am definitely ready for the cold to come now, the crisp wind refreshing against my face on the ride to work and that chill that paints a delightful rosy hue on my children's noses and cheeks. Tonight I'll drift off to sleep with visions of exhaling in white crystalline curls. I'll imagine the kids donning their cheerful mittens and toques to go outside, and coming back in with sweaty heads, demanding cocoa and fresh-baked cookies. And I will listen with great anticipation for the deafening silence that always comes with the first snowfall as it shimmies across the frosted asphalt in long wispy tendrils.