Halloween Socks, Giant Mushrooms, and Friends

Well, we're all well into October, one of my favourite months of the year, and the signs of Autumn are all around.

Look at me and my darling friends here for instance--we met for breakfast at the book-store/coffeeshop called Characters in Vancouver and all subconsciously chose to wear the colours that mesh with the season best. Black and orange!

"Jenkies, Shaggy!", said Kim. "I suddenly realized I'm dressed like Velma today!"

It was Tai's last weekend in Vancouver before she moves to Victoria and there was no better way to spend it than talking and laughing with friends over really good coffee, and then prowling among the bookshelves for a really good read.

There are other signs that Autumn is here:

* Socks suddenly become fun to buy again. At almost no other time of the year is it as easy to buy socks with spiders, bats, pumpkins and the like.

When a friend pulled up the leg of her pants the other day to show off the jack-o-lanterns on her ankles, I was pleased to reciprocate by showing off my purple socks with a fishbone skeleton motif.

*Giant white vaguely owl-like mushrooms sprout at the end of my driveway. They are fond of the rain.

* In my garden, fall flowers like coreopsis and tickseed and salvia are providing a bit of colour to complement the fading peony plants with their droopy reddening foliage. The red leaves off the cherry trees are making a mess, but it's a pretty mess at least.

* I'm getting paid at work to make hand-print turkeys.