My dog doesn’t understand Sleep-in-Saturdays. Once he started stirring, the cats were quick to follow. Since I’m clearly not the boss around her, I was up too. After making it down the stairs in the dark without tripping over any fur friends, I started the circus routing of feeding them their personalized meals. Once I had my shoes and coat on, Zephyr and I were ready to head out for our walk. I switched to my prescription sunglasses and had the door locked before realizing just how dark it still was. I assumed the sun would be making its grand entrance soon and decided not to switch glasses. It didn’t take long to settle in and take notice of the surroundings. Today I was going to have to use my ears instead of my eyes though. The trail was silent with only the two of us up and out this early on a weekend day. By the time we got to the high school parking lot we were greeted with the caws from the crows hanging out overhead on the lights. They were either asking if we saw any food for them or warning us against eating anything we found because they already laid claim. Further along I could hear the honking from the geese flying south early on their winter migration. When we got to the dirt trail by the lake the silence was interrupted by the crunching of the gravel beneath our feet. A few people joined us with a nod of their head or a whispered wish for a good morning. The sun was busy trying to shine its light on us but was hindered by cloud cover. As we came back to the sidewalk in the neighborhood I spied a pile of golden leaves under a tree. Thinking about a friend who told me she loves the sound of walking through the autumn leaves, I turned my feet toward them and crunched my way down the center of them. The final sound of our journey was the squeak from my kitten welcoming us back. The walk may have come earlier than planned, but it was worth it to enjoy the lovely morning concert.
10/8
watching from afar
sun making its grand entrance
light after darkness
10/10
truce at water hole
keeping eye on each other
rough-housing timeout
10/12
detained mid descent
before the fall was complete
caught in sticky web
10/15
colors of autumn
reflecting back this morning
lovely earthtone hues
10/19
watercolor paint
canvas waits for morning tone
splashes across sky
Tiffany Painter 