The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Halloween is very wonderful.  You get to dress up all silly and ridiculous and have fun.  That's about all I have for narrative on the subject.

Halloween Oktoberfest.  Beer, brats, bloody knives, lederhosen, dogs.  Dogs don't have much to do with Halloween or Oktoberfest, we just like them.

And dirndls.  And margaritas.  Margaritas totally go with the Oktoberfest Halloween theme.  

Tiger and White Spy at work.  I didn't "force" people on my team to dress up.  I just strongly encouraged them.  And reminded them who writes their reviews.  Totally worth it.

And because it is ridiculous and in line with the combo theme, round it out with a German tiger.

Winter Rx

View from my dad's studio

Fall is a fairly splendid season.  Trees start turning beautiful colors, the days and nights cool off, football starts and markets abound with pears, apples, winter squash and there are countless exceedingly tasty treats one can create from fall staples.

Lazy creatures.
But they earn their keep.

Shorter days provide a restfulness with less pressure to achieve and do so much (hiking, camping, gardening, fixing the roof and so on.)  The shorter days, however, also provide less light.  And that less light thing can trigger "The Winter Blues," a poetic term for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD.)  Most people are "seasonal" to some degree - where they prefer or feel better to some degree during one season or another.  Most, but not all, people have seasonal inclinations to the summer.

I am extremely seasonally disposed to the summer.  As my Christopher says, I am solar powered.  The further we get from the sun and the shorter the days, the less energy I have, the less enthusiasm and sparkel I have.

After a trail run.

But there are mitigating actions that can be taken!

Sleep!  Enough and regularly, but not too much.  Go to bed early, wake up early, go to the gym.  Speaking of which... get a lot of exercise.  My blood doesn't zip along with the same vim in winter and exercise helps wake up the body, mind and spirit.

Surround the self with fuzzy creatures and give them regular pets and cuddles.  Same goes with the hubby!

Bedside table reminder.

Eat good food.  Have a light touch with the carbs, particularly simple carbs like alcohol, white rice, starchy veggies, sugar and so on.  Eat more kale as they say.  And other things low on the glycemic scale, high on the ANDI scale.

Seek the sun and bright lights whenever possible, even if you need a light box to make that happen.  Be creative - knit, pot, paint, poetry, whatever.  You need not be skilled.



And find silly things that make you happy.  Donkeys always do it for me.  Costumes are good too.  And goats.  Especially buttermilk.


"Pay homage to the things that make your life beautiful," Jo from yogaglo.

An early watercolor by my step-mom

Another watercolor by my step-mom

A picture taken by my sis in law of a tulip in my backyard.
Spring will return.