A Love Letter to October…


“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

This beautiful line has been quoted quite a lot recently, turned into beautiful artwork with pumpkins and jewel tones. But this line is really just one line—one line of a different love letter to October, penned by writer L.M. Montgomery in Anne of Green Gables. The passage begins thusly:

October was a beautiful month at Green Gables, when the birches in the hollow turned as golden as sunshine and the maples behind the orchard were royal crimson and the wild cherry trees along the lane put on the loveliest shades of dark red and bronzy green, while the fields sunned themselves in aftermaths.

Anne reveled in the world of color about her.

“Oh, Marilla,” she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it? Look at these maple branches. Don’t they give you a thrill—several thrills? I’m going to decorate my room with them.”

I am inclined to agree with Anne. October is a wonderful month, for more reasons than the beautiful leaves {though that certainly is one reason}.
Clayton is not impressed with the leaves.


I have been told I’m biased, though, simply because of my first reason…

October means my birthday!

I’ve always loved having an October birthday! It felt a little bit like all the Halloween decorating was for me, and nature was changing its colors for me. Like the whole world wanted to celebrate my being another year older. But there were a lot of October birthdays in my family {two cousins and my grandfather}, as well as my grandparents’ anniversary, so there was a lot to celebrate in October. And then I went to college and found myself a roommate/best friend whose birthday is also in October.
If I hadn’t been sure about rooming with her, finding out her birthday sealed the deal.

People born in October are special. And awesome. Just ask anyone {who knows someone born in October…which, mathematically, probably means everyone}.

October means Halloween!

My mom loves Halloween.

No, like LOVES it.
My earliest experiences with Halloween...and with safe table sitting, apparently

Seriously, ask my siblings.

And I believe this love for the holiday has rubbed off on the rest of us. Don’t worry, I already have a post planned about my favorite Halloween movies.

I love decorating for Halloween. I love dressing up for Halloween {though I never have anywhere to go but school anymore…} I love the candy, I love the lore, I love it all!


My mom used to make our costumes when we were little, so enjoy a few of the greatest hits.


October means football!

Okay, so all of fall means “football,” but by October, the swing of the season has gotten underway. There is something called “football weather,” and October usually brings it. And more often than not, the four-day-weekend brought about by Columbus Day and a teacher’s institute meant a trip up to Wisconsin, which inevitably meant a stop in Green Bay.

People ask, and here’s the literal proof:  we were raised right.

October, the unofficial-official start to fall {though that 90 degree weather we had yesterday was SUPER fall-like. Illinois for the win!}

I love you, and I’m so glad you’re here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Being Kinda "Knotty"

Image
I have a confession to make. I'm about to bore you to tears. Okay, maybe not literally, but I'm writing about something I find terribly exciting, and there are those of you, dear readers, who may not agree. So I'm giving you an out. Right now, just stop reading. Is anyone still there? Good. Because we're about to get "knotty." I love to knit. There, I said it. If I could do nothing but knit, read, write, and drink tea, I'd be a very contented person. Not exciting, just contented. I've been knitting for a few years now. I wish I could say I learned from my grandmother or something that sounds much better than "I learned from Youtube." Actually, that doesn't sound too bad--Youtube is pretty indispensable when it comes to knitting. You can watch videos of all the stitches, which makes it easier to catch on sometimes. Up until recently, though, my knitting has not been varied. I knit scarves (the essential beginner project). I've
Read more

Who do you think you are?

How much do you know about where you came from?  I'm talking big picture here, not what you know about your home town or state. Genealogically.  Most of us know stories that have been passed down. We know that our grandmother's family has Irish roots, for example, and that our several-greats-grandfather fought in the continental army or that our great-grandmother's cousin just disappeared and there was never any trace of him after the Crash of '29. But how much do we really  know about our ancestors?  I am a bit of a genealogy nut--most of my family seems to be--and I have an ancestry.com account, which has proved most interesting to peruse. But all I know are names and some dates--I don't know anything about the kind of people they were, what they liked or disliked. They had children--were they good parents? Did she have a special recipe that she made at Christmas? Did he have a hobby like whittling or playing the guitar? Were there places she alwa
Read more

Questions: Round 1

In my last post, I asked for questions from my readers. I didn't have ridiculously high expectations--not because I don't have faith in my readers!!! But I know that if I read somebody's blog and they invited me to ask questions, I would be very hesitant to do so. Nobody wants to be first. Nobody wants to think that the blogger (me) is sitting there, laughing out loud at the questions and judging the asker. I get it. I promise I understand. I only had one intrepid reader who gave me some fodder for my blog posts, which is fine. I actually was not surprised by the fact that this reader gave me so many questions to answer. Of course, to understand why, one must go back to our time at ISU when she was working a late shift at the Info Desk in the student center and I was sitting in our dorm room when a Facebook chat window popped up, begging for some kind of question/answer quiz she could take before she died of boredom. Add to that hours and hours of Sporcle quizzes (hence
Read more