By Slanted Light

Poetry for October
Indian Summer
by Emily Dickinson
These are the days when birds come back,
A very few, a bird or two,
To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies put on
The old, old sophistries of June, —
A blue and gold mistake.

Oh, fraud that cannot cheat the bee,
Almost thy plausibility
Induces my belief,

Till ranks of seed their witness bear,
And softly through the altered air
Hurries a timid leaf!
Oh, sacrament of summer days,
Oh, last communion in the haze,
Permit a child to join,

Thy sacred emblems to partake,
Thy consecrated bread to break,
Taste thine immortal wine!

Pictures for October
I went for a walk over the fields today. There was much mud from where the cows had been (you know, that gloppy cow-hooves kind), but there was also this sort of thing.




Prosfic for October
I read an October-themed story! Okay, I read it yesterday and forgot to add it, cos it was on my Kobo, but... highly recommended! This is Halloween by Magenta Blue

...and the Lads!
Something a bit autumn-y about this one, perhaps...?Okay, maybe just the colour of Bodie's jacket, but still... *g*

Poetry for October
Autumn Colours
by Christopher Morley

The chestnut trees turned yellow,
The oak like sherry browned,
The fir, the stubborn fellow,
Stayed green the whole year round.
But O the bonny maple
How richly he does shine!
He glows against the sunset
Like ruddy old port wine.

Pictures for October
Went off to post a letter and do some work in nearby town (well, technically city actually *g*), and was distracted by taking a wee walk around the Bishop's Palace... I thought I'd done well getting this first pic in the carpark by the library, but then I found more autumn. *g*

The last pic is of Vicar's Close. The houses were apparently built by 1363, and the chimneys went up in 1470. For the Vicars Choral, you know... *g* Perhaps looks prettier now than it did then.

Prosfic for October
Continuing my project, I read a story called Rules of the Game this morning, which started out interestingly enough, and then descended into something that didn't work for me (bit too soppy and not-them in some ways, though there were some decent bits too). Turns out it was the story by Anne Carr.

In other fic news, I'm vaguely wondering whether to sign up for Yuletide this year. I might still be put off, cos it seems complicated, but maybe it would help get me writing again? Something surely should... *sighs* If I did it would be KJ Charles books, Astreiant, Mathey/Lynes fic...

...and the Lads!

Poetry for October
Autumn Leaves
by Angelia Wray

In the hush and the lonely silence
Of the chill October night,
Some wizard has worked his magic
With fairy fingers light.
The leaves of the sturdy oak trees
Are splendid with crimson and red.
And the golden flags of the maple
Are fluttering overhead.
Through the tangle of faded grasses
There are trailing vines ablaze,
And the glory of warmth and color
Gleams through the autumn haze.
Like banners of marching armies
That farther and farther go;
Down the winding roads and valleys
The boughs of the sumacs glow.
So open your eyes, little children,
And open your hearts as well,
Till the charm of the bright October
Shall fold you in its spell.

Pictures for October
Taken on a walk at my local NT stately house type place, which please remind me to never visit on a Sunday afternoon in autumn again. I've never seen so many cars there - there was even a coach... I mostly dodged the hoards to take these pictures, but not entirely.
And the noise! It's a huge place, but all around the lake/temple walk there was this buzz of people talking and children shouting, and babies squalling... Very much life, but not what I'd been looking forward to, not a peaceful autumn moment amongst it all!





Prosfic for October
I finished Killing Notes today, by Ellis Ward. It's one that I often forget to read, but I like it because it's the lads, very solidly them - I don't think there's a moment when I doubt it. It's a case story too, which makes a nice change sometimes!

I've not progressed today with Old Longings by Jane (as forseen...), but I did get out my Discovered on All Hallow's Eve book - I think I might be up to Rebel's fic next... *g*

...and the Lads!
Look - autumn! See the autumn leaves! *g* Not many yet - maybe it's even still October... *g* (Yes! According to Dave Matthew's site - it was! *g*... oh, and wow - Weekend in the Country was filmed this month - forty years ago!!!)

Poetry for October
(Pinched in this form from Country Living).

Pictures for October
One for yesterday, when I barely went out, and one for today when I did...
Prosfic for October
A Different Game by DVS, of course, for the Reading Room...

...and the Lads!
Autumn colours again... if not exactly autumn-themed!

Poetry for October

October
by Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.

Pictures for October
The second pic? That's not autumn leaves, that's autumn sunshine through the peeling bark on my favourite copper birch tree. *g*

I can't resist adding an extra one of this bark - how gorgeous?!

And an autumn-full moon in the window to finish... *g*

Prosfic for October
I finished Of Angels and Angles yesterday, and started Ellis Ward's Killing Notes, which very fittingly is set in October!

...and the Lads!
And today's picture is from Minori - here's her autumn lads...

Today felt like quite a productive day - I not only had an idea about how to deal with the UK Paper Circuit Library, but that led me back to Palelyloitering, and Loiteringpalely, and then another idea about how I could squeeze more of the Paper Circuit folders here in my place, rather than stored in the Slaughterhouse, and... Oh, and bits of house-rearranging, and all sorts! It helped that I only had half a day's work to do (though I managed to spread it out over the whole day... *headdesk*) So - let's see if the ideas percolate into problems overnight or into Yes! Let's do it! *g*

Poetry for October
A slightly more contemporary poem today - this poet is the age of my brother! My little brother (okay, not so little any more...) Anyway, I really like this...

October
by Jacob Polley

Although a tide turns in the trees
the moon doesn't turn the leaves,
though chimneys smoke and blue concedes
to bluer home-time dark.

Though restless leaves submerge the park
in yellow shallows, ankle-deep,
and through each tree the moon shows, halved
or quartered or complete,

the moon's no fruit and has no seed,
and turns no tide of leaves on paths
that still persist but do not lead
where they did before dark.

Although the moonstruck pond stares hard
the moon looks elsewhere. Manholes breathe.
Each mind's a different, distant world
this same moon will not leave.

Pictures for October
Round this way it's been wet and windy today - and it still is. Big Tree is almost ready for winter already!


Prosfic for October
Today's Prosfic was, rather oddly, a story I wrote myself, because it was next in the Prosfic book-zine that I'm reading, and I thought oh well, why not... - If There Be Vampires and Werewolves. Can't quite decide if it works or not... I'll finish it tomorrow and try to decide then!
Oh, and also a couple of sequels to Tarot's Endgame. One is a sequel, and the other is a fix-it sequel, which I must admit to not reading all through, because... well, I didn't feel I needed to. I liked the sequel though, and it quite makes me want to write the next one... *g* Well done jat_sapphire for spotting them at the Circuit Archive!


...and the Lads!
They really do look like they've been disturbed and not happy about it, don't they... *g*

I was way too tired when I got home last night to post, and I meant to post this this morning, but there was a Windows Update thing, and then it was one of those days where everything I picked up I seemed to drop, but here it is at last...

Poetry for October
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Pictures for October
Today I was bound for home again, driving through autumn mountain mists, trees that are just beginning to turn, and past autumn-brown bracken and distant views...




Nipped through Aberystwyth, since I was almost there anyway...

...which was on the autumn-wild side...

Then rather astonishingly I came across a Butterfly House. Of course it's in Wales, so it's a Pili Pala House (okay, tŷ pili pala). Anyway, I like them, so when I saw the sign I had to detour the three mere miles to go and find them. *g*





And red berries on the trees by the hydro-dam nearby... Detouring those three miles actually turned into a much longer tiny-wind-y-mountain-road type detour, as the sat nav tried to get me back where it wanted me again, but Little Car drove valiantly up steep one-track roads, and round blind one-track bends until we got back to more solid ways once more, and then it was straight on back into England and down to Somerset.

Prosfic for October
Today my Kobo decided that I would read End of the Path by AngelfishCI5, so I did - and not at all autumnal, but very nice anyway. Then my bedtime reading was the start of Of Angels and Angles by SarahK. I wanted to read longer, but I was just waaaay too sleepy...

...and the Lads!


(I'm getting very cavalier about lj-cuts... Should I put the butterflies under one?)

Today's autumn post comes courtesy of the Welsh Rally - of Wales, and cars, and mud...

Poetry for October
Mud
by Robert Service

Mud is Beauty in the making,
Mud is melody awaking;
Laughter, leafy whisperings,
Butterflies with rainbow wings;
Baby babble, lover's sighs,
Bobolink in lucent skies;
Ardours of heroic blood
All stem back to Matrix Mud.

Mud is mankind in the moulding,
Heaven's mystery unfolding;
Miracles of mighty men,
Raphael's brush and Shakespear's pen;
Sculpture, music, all we owe
Mozart, Michael Angelo;
Wonder, worship, dreaming spire,
Issue out of primal mire.

In the raw, red womb of Time
Man evolved from cosmic slime;
And our thaumaturgic day
Had its source in ooze and clay...
But I have not power to see
Such stupendous alchemy:
And in star-bright lily bud
Lo! I worship Mother Mud.

Pictures for October
We headed off today at 7am for the Sweet Lamb stage of the Wales Rally GB, and drove through countryside that looked like this - so green!



The church was a kind of map-finding stop, so of course I took the chance to stretch my legs - and found out that the first recorded quadruplets had been born in February 1856, but that they'd also died of typhus, along with their father, a brother and sister, within a month... too sad...

When we got there, the rally stage looked like this - including some autumn-brown and mist!



The mud came in not just on the track, and around the area in general, but when I managed to slip down a bank instead of walking down it, and came up covered in the stuff... *sigh* Worse than that I've stuffed up my knee, and it's aching and aching right now. It'd better sort itself out, because I have to drive for six hours to get home on Monday (and I was planning on leaving earlier and including some interesting stops this time)! It's my clutch/accelerator leg, of course... *sighs more*

Prosfic for October
I'm reading These Things Do Not Remember You by Gwyneth Rhys, to match Endgame...

...and the lads. *g*
Lads with cars today, of course...



...and lads at muddy motor sports... *g*

Hello from Wales! Noswaith dda! I drove straight through from Somerset - over six hours through gorgeous countryside that started out under cloudy skies, was gradually drenched in more and more rain, paused around Blaenau Ffestiniog to swirl and drip the towers of slate with cloud and mist, and cleared up again as I finally came into Llandudno. Of course it's now absolutely tipping it down with rain, as forecast - but hopefully there'll be some clear patches tomorrow.

Poetry for October
The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(more of the poem here - I like it, but we only need this bit here. *g*)

Pics for October
I should have some fab pics from the drive up today - but it was just too wet to stop... So have the autumn-wet-night view from the window...


Prosfic for October
Okay, I'm trying to think of one that's all about the rain, and my brain just isn't coming through. Help?!

And lads!
Well, it's got to be the lads in the rain, hasn't it...

(I did write A Damp Snippet to go with that picture, though it doesn't feel very autumn-y...)

And now bed - I'm shattered!

So I might be setting myself up for a fall here (ha! autumn? fall? Geddit? *g*), especially since I've already really missed the first day, but... I'd been thinking for ages about posting a month of autumn, and/or posting a lead-up to Halloween, and I think I'm still going to do it! I've just been feeling a bit dreggy lately, and like I said the other day week, autumn is my favourite season, so... Right. Gonna do it. *g* (And still do icons, too. Get better at doing my icon posts, cos I got behind there too. I'm nothing if not optimistic... *g*

So - every day in October is an autumn day, from now on! And it's also a lead-up-to-Halloween day, because I like spooky things, and I miss eldritchhobbit's Halloween Countdown, which I know is still over on DW, but I hardly ever go there, and adding one more thing to my list of stuff to read... well, it'll either hold up work even more, or won't get done. I wish there was a programme that brought together all the different forums you wanted to read, and let you comment from there too (like lj flists, but for all blogs and forums that you sign up to...)

Poetry for October
“I am made for autumn. Summer and I have a fickle relationship, but everything about autumn is perfect to me. Wooly jumpers, Wellington boots, scarves, thin first, then thick, socks. The low slanting light, the crisp mornings, the chill in my fingers, those last warm sunny days before the rain and the wind. Her moody hues and subdued palate punctuated every now and again by a brilliant orange, scarlet or copper goodbye. She is my true love.”
- Alys Fowler (who is a gardener).

Pictures for October
Autumn's only just thinking about it round this way...
This house is the exception around here, not the rule! Pretty though. *g*

Really it's looking more like this.



Just a glimpse of flashing red, or a haze of turning-yellow amid the late summer flowers.

Prosfic for autumn/October!
I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I do like our lads around the supernatural - it's the contrast I think, like sending them on holiday. We know what they do in their normal, everyday lives in London (or England or the UK, come to that), but what happens when you take them out of that comfort zone..? *g* So - I started out by looking at this list of stories and randomly picked....

All in a Name by callistosh65.
This was written for the Discovered in the Fallen Leaves challenge at discoveredinalj, all the way back in 2007 - wow, 12 years ago! It's technically based on the supernatural, but not really, so it fits, but only in a made-you-giggle kind of way. Perfect for the first of October. *g*

Okay, this last bit was just cos I wanted there to be more lads in my post - some autumn-coloured lads! *g*