The Road Home

Leaves are changing on October 6 along Fort Valley Road in George Washington National Forest in Virgina. It was a beautiful driving alternative to the bustle of the nearby freeway (I-81). Copyright by WyoJones. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

We live in a really beautiful country. It is also a very BIG country. Holy cow, is it big! And there are places were AUTUMN happens! Like autumn with leaves changing colors and everything! While there is much to love about living in Texas, I do miss having more than a couple of seasons. And that’s if winter happens. Otherwise, the year is just variations of summer.

When I was a little girl, we not only had a leaf-changing autumn, we used to “do” autumn in school. We’d color leaves and glue them to tree looking things. Now that I know more (i.e. have lived in place without a leaf-changing autumn), I realize that not all autumns are created leaf-changing. And they happen opposite in the other hemisphere. (I could be bitter about the false advertising from my youth, but I prefer to move on.)

Now I get that that a “traditional” autumn depends on where you live. And some on Mother Nature’s mood at the right time. If She produces, say, a really big snow storm a bit early (unlike The Weather Channel, I refuse to name a snow storm!), then autumn will not put on her pretty colors, even though it is right time, right place.

So, all things being…something, I got to see some what I would call autumn this, er, autumn. And I liked it.

There is something kind of soothing about the flow of the seasons. My family thinks I’m crazy to miss winter, but I do. But I think I miss autumn the most. The blaze of glory, the cool (sometimes cold) air gets my creative juices going in a way the a/c just can’t duplicate not matter how cold it gets. Maybe it is a circle of life thing. Or a circle of my life thing.

I know it was both fun to see places I had not seen before on the #hermitroadtrip, but it also satisfied something in my soul to experience a leaf-changing autumn. Do you find that there are certain seasons that you’re drawn to? Times of year that lift your spirits more than others? All comments are entered into my monthly drawing for an AnaBanana gift basket of year round yummy. Winner is announced first blog post of the new month.

Perilously yours,

Pauline

When Pauline isn’t wishing for leaf-changing autumn to roll somehow find her, she writes books. Books filled with humor, mayhem and romance. Come on, you gotta have the romance! She’s written romantic suspense and out of this world space adventure. This year she returned to her romantic suspense roots–and New Orleans–with a new series: The Big Uneasy. The first book is Relatively Risky, which released in March. And Family Treed: The Big Uneasy 1.5 released in September. For more info about all of Pauline’s books and more, hop on over to her website at paulinebjones.com. It’s not as good as autumn, but it’s not bad.

Family Treed is 1.5 in my Big Uneasy series. This short story is my amuse bouche, because it is a taste, a quick bite for my readers, a chance to check in on Nell and Alex (from Relatively Risky). Cover art by Ana Baird. All rights reserved.

 Buy at Amazon. 🙂