September is here!

Today I have the memories of shuffling through piles of leaves, and the wonder of raking them to the curb where once upon a time someone would light them and stand watch as the smell of leaves burning flavored the cool dry air. Maybe last enjoyed in the 70s.  No more, no more.

Well, we will be able to shuffle through leaves if we just take ourselves to a wooded place. I'm pretty sure my sons and grandchildren will have jumped into a pile of raked leaves - waiting to be put into big bags for pick-up by some civic truck or another.

These days the best use of fallen leaves is to chop them up and use them as mulch wherever you wish.

A tunnel on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 2023

It will be another month (mid Oct.) till we're at the peak of leaf color season. The tree above had it's picture taken Oct 23, 2023.

The other major thing for my life is that school has started, with several trickle-down effects. First the pool has closed so more parking is available for us seniors when we come to lunch at the Lakeview Center. Second, I need to avoid being behind school busses at around 2:30-3:00 most afternoons. Also avoid shopping at that time, when moms hurry around the aisles getting last minute preps with school age kids somewhat under their eye. Not always. I just avoid the situations.

While American politicians seem interested in the sizes of crowds they attract, here's a crowd of followers of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama addressing the capacity crowd of 15,000 at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland on August 25, 2024. Photo by Manuel Bauer.

Yesterday I decided to stay home rather than go to the market to sell some pots. Not sure if it was a good decision, but I do tend to move to more conservative decisions these days. My health continues to be a very important factor. Today I'm going to enjoy Sarah Vekasi's talk about Cultivating Joy at the UU Church. She's an Eco-Chaplin with Buddhist training...and a potter!

Today's quote:

We live and we die, this is the truth that we can only face alone. No one can help us, not even the Buddha. So consider carefully, what prevents you from living the way you want to live your life?

HH the Dalai Lama

School days

For our Sepia Saturday meme, this week we get to share school pictures.  Mmm, not those awful ones of year books, thank you very much!

Photo from: Flickr Commons collection of the State Archives of North Carolina

So come over HERE to see what other Sepians have been inspired to post (scroll to bottom of that page where names are listed for links to their posts).  You are welcome to post your own blog on- (or maybe off-) theme and list your link as well!  The girls in the photo were captured in 1917.  That's the year my mother was born.  My photos are a bit more recent!  Sharing some of the family photos of my youth again.

These were taken of the campus of Principia, in St. Louis, MO in about 1953.  My father was a bit proud of his Studebaker.  Top photo shows the girls dorm, with the gym over to the left side.  Next photo (on right) shows car with the Upper School in the background.  And the lower photo shows my sister and myself (the tall one in matching Easter Outfits) in front of the Administration Building.

I mentioned this campus a few weeks ago, HERE, and talked about my high school years a bit.  As you can see we were a bit younger than that when we started school there.  Actually my sister was about 4 I think, and I had just turned 8 when I entered 3rd grade.  I had no other school experience besides Principia until my sophomore year of college, when I attended William and Mary for summer school.  Then I quit college completely my spring quarter of my junior year of college.  That's when my adult life actually started.