October • Colors of the Month

“My favorite color is October. “ - Angela Burgin Logan

Lately, I have seen this quote on posters, t-shirts, and pillows all over Pinterest. As part of my photo project this year, I have identified featured colors for each month — icy blues in January; rosy pinks and reds in February; fresh shades of green in March; cheerful yellows in April; lovely lavenders and violets in May; pure whites in June; patriotic red, white and blue in July; golden, sunny hues in August; earthy browns in September. But what color is October?

It is one of my favorite months, yet when I imagine a color to represent October, I immediately think of orange — my least favorite color (Read why here). I won’t deny that orange leaves and pumpkins add seasonal charm to October photographs, but I can’t commit to a whole month of orange pictures. So what color is October? Perhaps Anne Shirley described it best: “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 the aftermaths. Anne reveled in the world of color about her....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?" - L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Cheers to a brilliant October featuring the loveliest shades of autumn, and yes, even orange!

Autumn 2019 Bucket List

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." - George Eliot

I 💛 fall too and there’s so much that I want to do!

• Enjoy the fall colors here at home, up north, in Central Park, and in the Luxembourg Gardens (✓-)

• Decorate with white pumpkins, mums, and fall-scented candles (✓)

• Wear cozy sweaters, scarves, and boots (with pants and skirts, of course!) (✓)

• Enjoy the Wine and Harvest Festival in Cedarburg (✓)

• Explore and take pictures during Doors Open Milwaukee - September 28th (✓)

• Spend the first weekend in October in New York City (✓)

  • Discover Chelsea and Greenwich Village (✓)

  • Visit the 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center (✓)

  • Learn new things at the Google Offices

  • Have Breakfast at Tiffany’s (✓)

  • See Wicked on Broadway (✓)

  • Stroll in Central Park (✓)

  • Visit old friends (✓)

• Have a bon fire in the back yard and roast marshmallows

• Drink hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick (✓)

• Go to Ladies' Night Out in Delafield with friends

• Watch Packers games (including the 10/20 game at WOS Bar in Paris!) (✓)

• Spend a week in Paris in October with Eric and Nan + Mark (✓)

  • Stroll down the Champs-Élysées, in the Latin Quarter, up in Montmartre, in the Tuileries and Luxembourg Gardens, in the Palais Royal, and along the Rue de Rivoli (✓)

  • Check on Notre Dame (✓)

  • Hope to step upon Point Zéro (Sadly, you can’t get near Point Zéro)

  • Visit with French friends (✓)

  • Watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle (✓)

  • Make a lovely lunch with fresh ingredients from the market on the Avenue President Wilson (✓)

  • Stop for wine, lunch, and coffee in cafés (✓)

  • Stop for tea and macarons at Ladurée and choux at Odette (✓)

  • Browse in book shops (✓)

  • Enjoy a dinner cruise on the Seine just like Audrey Hepburn and Carey Grant in Charade (✓)

  • Sip cocktails at the Hemingway Bar in the Ritz (✓)

• Take a walk in the morning fog (✓)

• Make butternut squash soup, chili, and wild rice soup (✓)

• Cuddle with Piper by the fire (✓)

• Spend a weekend in Door County

• Buy Macintosh apples from Wood's in Fish Creek

• Shop at the Farmer's Market

• Go to the Delafield Halloween festivities

• Pick out pumpkins and carve jack-o-lanterns

• Roast pumpkin seeds

• Listen to Halloween Party Radio on Pandora (✓)

• Watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (✓)

• See A Modern Vision: European Masterworks exhibits at the Milwaukee Art Museum

• Take lots of photos (✓)

Ironically, I did really enjoy the colors in Paris and New York, but not in Wisconsin. We didn’t make it to Sturgeon Bay before it snowed — on October 31st! At home, I was just beginning to notice the leaves changing when we returned from Paris, but again, the Halloween snow quickly put an end to that. Oh well, next year….

Wet leaves

(312/365)

"At no other time than autumn does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell -- the ripe earth; a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste and more sweet than honey...containing depth within itself..." - Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Cézanne

Reinforcements

(309/365)

Camus said that, "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” After the weekend's wind and rain, all of the "flowers" are on the ground, so here's to Monday reinforcements.

Golden Autumn

(303/365)

"The time of the falling leaves has come again. Once more on our morning walk, we tread upon carpets of gold and crimson, of brown and bronze, woven by the winds and the rains...How full of light and color are their last days in October...the whole body of air seems enriched by their calm, slow radiance. They are giving back the light that they have been absorbing all summer." - John Burroughs, "The Falling Leaves" 

Praise the Bridge

(302/365)

"Praise the bridge that carried you over." - English Proverb

...and back. We're leaving Door County today, but I have more pictures to share this week.