Buffalo Gal

I drove about a 50 mile roundtrip today and took in the scenery as I always do.
I am highly sensitive to the change of seasons and we have four of them around this area.
It is that time of year again….everything in the surrounding environs has turned to gray (trees and shrubs) black (fields and lakes) and brown (grass, fields) There is almost no color at all….bright colors that is..unless you spot a bluejay or the red apples on the flowering crab trees. I suppose the wild dogwood branches are showing some red but they are dull at this time of year. I need to get out and find some FLAME WILLOW shelterbelts!!! That orange is really colorful in winter when the snow is on the ground.
This is the least favorite time of year for me…I do NOT like the darkening short days of November. I think of the Gordon Lightfoot song THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD which happened in a November storm on Lake Superior….”the Witch of November came early”.
Everything gets gloomy especially when we have so many cloudy days.
November is also the LEAST sunny month of the entire year. I can recall Novembers when the sun never shone at all on any day and it stayed gray and dark and glum for 30 days.
It is not a good time for people who suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and depression is hard to fight off.
But November for me also means the scent of hot, floury lefse cooking on my grill……the rising of Swedish rye bread dough and white roll dough in preparation for Thanksgiving Day meals.
I have some bright orange squashes in a basket on my table along with 3 golden ears of field corn. It is a bright spot on these gloomy days.
I think about food like roasted turkey and roast pork with cinnamon apples; homemade soups and fresh homemade bread; gingerbread with orange marmalade and whipped cream; apple pie and apple crisp and anything made with apples; Honeycrisp apples..the Queen of ALL apple varieties.
Last night about 6:20 p.m. I saw the full moon rising in the northeast….the Harvest Moon, I guess. It was as orange and round as a perfectly shaped pumpkin at that time. A few minutes later it had turned deep gold and within an hour it was clear silver-white in the blue – black sky.
It thrills me to see these full moons of Fall. It keeps me from the Doldrums of darkness when I can see the orange/gold/silver full moons of October and November (The Hunter’s Moon)

Election Day is soon upon us. I look forward to the few-mile drive to the Eglon Township Hall—-over 100 years old with its pot – bellied wood stove in the center of the one room hall. I love to walk in and sniff the woody smell of burning firewood, to have the odor of black coffee greet me…I think I will bring some doughnuts to the Town Board this November 6.
I already know exactly whom or what I will vote for…..candidates, state judges, how to vote on 2-3 issues on the ballot. I have studied it all out and am confident in casting my vote.
I always hope that Americans will be totally honest in voting and that there will be no fraud or crime committed in the voting process. It is probably too much to hope for since there are many evil people abroad who are willing to pollute the voting process. It is such a gift and blessing we have as a Free People.
This is the most crucial election we have faced for a good long time. It will probably be the one that determines whether we stay a Free People or if we will see our Constitution and other Founding Documents further trampled on and ignored. It may determine whether WE THE PEOPLE (our representatives) will truly be part of our government or if we will see dictatorship… via Executive Orders take over our way of life.
It is crucial to vote for candidates who believe in our way of freedom and our way of life…..we cannot afford to elect those who would take away these rights that have been guaranteed to us since the founding of our nation.