This is an old pic because I’m out of storage space now. I have to see how to upgrade and see when I can get the money for it. I have the free and limited version now. I will post something better soon. I love to post at least once each month. I used to post much more. It’s a bit off putting to not have room for updated pictures and not exactly sure what I have to do to get more storage space.
I have been in the Fall spirit and the air here in Philadelphia is getting cooler and crisp each day! Hopefully stays that way now! The Summer was excessively hot this year!
Anyway, I hope you are having a great day or night wherever in the world you are! 🍂🍁☕👻🎃🖤
I see no reason not to be happy in this beautiful season!! Colorful and crunchy leaves decorating the streets, crisp air, cool nights, houses decorated for Fall, cheerful holiday tunes right around the corner (I already have a few Christmas songs on my playlist! To me, it’s never too early for Christmas cheer!), scarecrows & pumpkin pie, my little sister’s b-day!! Yay!!
November is speckled with all kinds of gems of beauty & inspiration!
And it’s actually starting to feel like Fall now! It felt like Summer almost all October!
I couldn’t be happier! It almost doesn’t feel real! 😀
In honor of this lovely month, I’m sharing some quotes and my pictures! 😀
“October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces.” ~J.K. Rowling
(I am not a Harry Potter fan but this is a beautiful quote!)
“November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.
With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.
The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.” ~Clyde Watson
“But there is always a November space after the leaves have fallen when she felt it was almost indecent to intrude on the woods…for their glory terrestrial had departed and their glory celestial of spirit and purity and whiteness had not yet come upon them.” ~L.M. Montgomery
“In November, some birds move away and some birds stay. The air is full of good-byes and well-wishes. The birds who are leaving look very serious. No silly spring chirping now. They have long journeys and must watch where they are going. The staying birds are serious, too, for cold times lie ahead. Hard times. All berries will be treasures.” ~Cynthia Rylant
“The November evening had a bite; it nibbled not-quite-gently at her cheeks and ears. In Virginia the late autumn was a lover, still, but a dangerous one.” ~J. Aleksandr Wootton
“November is usually such a disagreeable month…as if the year had suddenly found out that she was growing old and could do nothing but weep and fret over it. This year is growing old gracefully…just like a stately old lady who knows she can be charming even with gray hair and wrinkles. We’ve had lovely days and delicious twilights.” ~L.M. Montgomery
“In November, the smell of food is different. It is an orange smell. A squash and pumpkin smell. It tastes like cinnamon and can fill up a house in the morning, can pull everyone from bed in a fog. Food is better in November than any other time of the year.” ~Cynthia Rylant
I have always felt that food is always better in the cold. It tastes better and has a better feel. Somehow, my experience with severe, suicidal, long-term depression helped me realize this. It’s difficult to explain how. It’s just easier to be painfully and beautifully aware of things in a deeper way with a life of depression. Or something like that.
“In November, the earth is growing quiet. It is making its bed, a winter bed for flowers and small creatures. The bed is white and silent, and much life can hide beneath its blankets.” ~Cynthia Rylant
“In November, the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still.” ~Cynthia Rylant
This wasn’t taken today but I’m dressed for Fall weather so why not share it here?! This was a few days ago! I don’t usually wear long sleeved shirts. I like sleeveless ones all year! 😀
“In November, people are good to each other. They carry pies to each other’s homes and talk by crackling woodstoves, sipping mellow cider. They travel very far on a special November day just to share a meal with one another and to give thanks for their many blessings – for the food on their tables and the babies in their arms.” ~Cynthia Rylant
This is one of the best things about the holiday season. I’m in this spirit all year but when the holiday season is near, I feel a sense of unity in the air and receive all kinds of subscription e-mails about gratitude & loving each other and kindness. Many people who aren’t in this spirit every day, get in the mood around now and it’s a beautiful atmosphere.
“November came roaring in with gusty winds and more wet weather. Mandy’s depression would not go away. Her garden seemed sad, too. It was virtually empty now, and the few brave flowers that remained there were flattened by rain, their yellows stalks sprawling in all directions. Most of the trees were bare, and the woods had a wet carpet of leaves.” ~
Julie Andrews Edwards
This is sad but beautiful. I know what it is to be deeply, deeply depressed, I struggle with severe episodes that can feel unbearable and can relate. It always returns but it always ends. Even when I think it never will.
“Flurries early, pristine and pearly. Winter’s come calling! Can we endure so premature a falling? Some may find this trend distressing- others bend to say a blessing over sage and onion dressing.” ~Old Farmer’s Almanac
So much wonder all around! I am overwhelmed! But in a good way!
I wanted to get some pictures outside but I was stuck at work all day and then when I got out it was very dark! Gets dark so early these days! Nightfall is so beautiful! ❤
I hope you like the quotes & pictures!! Happy November to you!! I'm sending you lots of love!
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” ~ L.M. Montgomery
October is back again!! Like a long lost friend waiting to be warmly embraced! And it couldn’t be more perfect! It’s cold & rainy today!!
❤ 😀
In honor of this beautiful month, I will share some lovely Fall quotes & my pictures!
Here goes!
“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
“October’s poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.” ~Nova Bair
“Falling leaves hide the path so quietly.” ~John Bailey
“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.” ~ Stanley Horowitz
Pumpkin ice cream!! We have pumpkin & pumpkin pie at work! The pumpkin pie has pie pieces in it which I love but I like the taste of the pumpkin better! They’re both delicious though! Yum! ;-p 😀 ❤
“Listen! the wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, we have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!” ~Humbert Wolfe
Pumpkin pj’s!
“The milkweed pods are breaking, and the bits of silken down, float off upon the autumn breeze, across the meadows brown.”~Cecil Cavendish
“Then summer fades and passes and October comes. We’ll smell smoke then, and feel an unexpected sharpness, a thrill of nervousness, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure.” ~Thomas Wolf
Full Autumn Moon ❤
“October gave a party; The leaves by hundreds came – The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, And leaves of every name. The Sunshine spread a carpet, And everything was grand, Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the band.” ~George Cooper
It’s Hoodie weather!! Doesn’t get much better than this!!
There’s so many, many things to smile about! 😀
Let’s remember to be mindful of all the beauty around & within us. ❤
And here’s a song for you!!
I love this old video, it’s a youtube video of like an old show or something in the 1960’s and it’s the song “Monster Mash” sung by Bobby Boris Pickett! ❤
“By all these lovely tokens September days are here, With summer’s best of weather And autumn’s best of cheer.” ~
Helen Hunt Jackson
As much as I LOVE Fall and am absolutely thrilled that it is almost here…sort of, I feel a tinge of sadness whenever I hear someone talk about the “end of summer.” Part of me even wants to yell it’s not the end! It’s still only August! We have the rest of August and the whole month of September almost!
I have been cherishing every bit of Summer. The warm and cool breezes, the bright green leaves and flying insects all around, the Summer nights with the bright moon and crickets chirping and the vibrant green light of the fireflies, the fragrances of green and wet Earth, the golden sun, the flowers…all of it. Well, all of it except for the disgusting heatwaves. I will never love 100 degrees weather and heatwave after heatwave.
But my heart dances with joy when I think about how soon pumpkin coffee will be here(i think it already is here in some places but eww, it’s August, it’s not pumpkin season yet! Pumpkin coffee is made for cool nights with crunchy leaves floating around under an Autumn sky, not for hot, humid, sticky Summer nights!)!!
And pumpkin smoothies and donuts and crispy colored leaves all over the ground! And cool nights and hoodies and the Eastern State Penitentiary haunted prison attraction! Who is not thrilled for all that?!
It’s absolutely amazing how just the thought of a certain season or weather can have me in a state of like pure ecstasy. Something as simple as that. Like I just won a billion dollar lottery or got an amazing new job or am falling in love. I AM in love but at this moment it’s not romantic love for a person but love for life itself.
I love when I can feel this way.
And it’s not only when it’s my favorite seasons. I can feel it any part of the year, just out of the blue. It’s not a regular/general kind of happiness like I usually experience. It’s like a thrill that is usually reserved for when something out of the ordinary happens but I feel it out of the blue even when nothing unusual happens. It’s not a quiet serenity or calm bliss. It’s more of an ecstatic joy. And I love it!
“Remember to be gentle with yourself and others. We are all children of chance and none can say why some fields will blossom while others lay brown beneath the August sun.” ~
Kent Nerburn
So here are some of the sweet signs of Autumn I have encountered:
These may not really be Fall leaves but they sure are crisp and colorful! And quite lovely.
Today?! It’s only August but I guess it’s never too early to start preparing for flubug prevention! So influenza season is right around the corner, which means that pumpkin patches, haunted attractions, Halloween, hayrides, and other lovely Fall gems are too, so at least there’s a bright side! 😀
But let’s not forget it’s still Summer and have fun basking in all of the end of Summer treasures like this little thing here:
What in the world is this beautiful creature? He hisses real loud and flies in people’s faces scaring the piss out of them. He is BIG! Like gargantuan. Like bigger than a large butterfly.
Bigger than he looks in the pictures.
He has been hanging outside my work for a few nights and one night he came up to a man and grabbed his dollar and the man pulled it back and the thing hissed and flew away. Lol It was hilarious! He is really cute and I hope he lives a long, happy life wherever he goes. I kept trying to get him to put him in a safe place but then decided that he would just fly wherever he wants anyway and I don’t want to provoke a heart attack in him by scaring him silly when I’m trying to pick him up.
He flew into the window with a loud thwack and I thought someone threw something at me until I saw him.
“I prefer Winter and Fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape. Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn’t show.” ~Andrew Wyeth
I’m so thrilled and filled with immense gratitude that Fall is finally here! It feels like being embraced by a long lost friend! I am just bursting with joy! The day is cool and the nights have been so cool. There are crunchy leaves all around and Pumpkin goodness in every store! I just love it.
I love living in a place where we have four seasons, each very different than the one before and the one after. The thrill of a new season is enthralling!
I love Hall & Oates, two Philadelphia boys and one of my favorite groups since I was a little girl, for as long as I can remember. I have been listening to their song “Fall in Philadelphia” and my heart wells up with even more gratitude and thrills! Fall in Philadelphia is just the best, nothing can be better! The cobblestone streets, Center City, the Eastern State Penitentiary, the brilliant colors, old buildings, people everywhere, septa busses, trolleys, tour busses, the beauty and love that throbs through the city…
I am beyond blessed.
Also,
I’m reading a novel called “The Bird Eater” which is said in the reviews to be one of the scariest books ever written! Even people who said they never get scared over books or movies confessed to being scared out of their wits. Lol I only read like forty pages and I think there over 200. I have been waiting till Fall to read it so I can read it on cool nights all wrapped up in blankets with my little pomeranian boy!
It’s very good! It’s like we’re unsure if the main character is mentally ill/psychotic or if there’s ghosts haunting him!
Also, here are some of my favorite Autumn quotes!!
1.) Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling, and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground. Andrea Gibson
2.) I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. L.M. Montgomery
3) Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. Albert Camus
4.) I want to say something so embarrassing about September that even the leaves start blushing and turning red. Jarod Kintz
5.) Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year. Chad Sugg
I’m falling for this season already. It’s magic!! 😀
I hope everyone is having a wonderful first day of Fall!! 😀
“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, Rejoice, for your soul is alive.” ~Eleanora Duse
This is exactly how it feels to me to acknowledge the beauty of Nature. I have always been aware of the profound beauty all around me even while in severe emotional or physical pain. Mindfulness of natural beauty and the thrill it brings have come easily to me for as long as I can remember. Even as a little girl I would be in awe of the simple joys of living. The blueness of the sky, the sparkle of the rain, the dramatic colors of sunsets, the scent of cold air, the fragrance of grass and soil, the seasons changing…but I never realized this as a “thing” or concept or way of life until years later when I decided to create a personal development plan to heal my depression and I learned about mindfulness and gratitude at deeper, more conscious levels.
I decided to take my natural ability and habit of being aware of and thankful for the beauty all around me and make it even deeper, a conscious, intentional habit.
This to me is truly living. And it’s beautiful and also helps me cope with pain of any kind. But even when I’m not in pain it’s a thrilling way to live. Living generally mindfully with a conscious frequent attitude of gratitude, not just as a fleeting mood or feeling, has a dramatic impact and healing effect. Being mindful of my mindfulness itself also uplifts me often, knowing I have this ability, that I accomplished this lovely way of living.
Mindfulness or awareness or acknowledgment of beauty and blessings, an attitude of gratitude as a conscious, intentional way of life are incredible life changing habits but they are not cures for anything. When we accomplish this and develop these habits we will still feel pain, unhappiness sometimes. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be when you think about it, right?! That’s what it is to be alive. To feel both happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and pain, joy and sadness, thrill and blah feelings. But those habits can help us cope when something unpleasant is occurring.
Summer is my least favorite season but I love all four lovely seasons. They all have their own blessings. One of the things I will miss most about Summer is the beautiful insects/flying creatures/kreepy krawlers….lol
The bumble bees and the butterflies, the fireflies and other beauties.
Many days this summer there was a bumble bee drinking nectar out of a bright orange flower on the street where I live. So many days I would walk by the beautiful vibrant flowers and see the bee there sucking through the center of one of them. Truly amazing to see such beauty!
I got a few photos one day. I will also miss the flowers. But I usually don’t dwell on what I miss. Instead I focus on Now. Whatever is currently here is really all I have. All any of us has. It’s great to look forward to, hope for, and plan on things in the future but generally I believe it’s best to honor Now. Now is still Summer and right now it’s a heatwave.
95 degrees in September!! For real! It wasn’t even this hot all Summer!
But I see signs of the impending Fall. Pumpkin lattes and coffee and donuts are already out! I get in holiday and season spirit very early. In July I’m already ready for Fall and in October I’m ready for Christmas and snow! Lol
I think pumpkin coffee is more thrilling in cooler weather though and if I get it now in the midst of a heat wave then on the first crisp, Fall-like day it won’t be quite as thrilling. Still totally thrilling but not as much of a new feeling.
So I guess I will wait on that. Right now I’m drinking toasted almond coffee!
Here is a list of my favorite things about Autumn!
1.) Pumpkin Everything
2.) Cool nights
3.) Fall fashion (although I dress like it’s Summer all year except I wear hoodies in Fall) I love seeing photos of Fall fashion and other girls wearing it. It’s just usually not the style for me to wear myself.
4.) The colorful leaves on the ground
5.) Halloween themes and Thanksgiving things. I believe in gratitude all year round but it seems everyone else gets in the mood for gratitude around the holiday season
6.) Hoodies
7.) the feel in the air, the mental feeling of Fall
8.) apples
9.) Fall colors – brown, yellow, orange, red…
10.) candy corn!
11.) the fragrances of Fall -cinnamon, apple, cool air, pumpkin
12.) hot coffee, cocoa, tea…it’s just more magical in the Fall
13.) my dog loves the Fall & Winter! She gets quiet all summer and on really hot days and isn’t as playful but as soon as Autumn is in the air, she gets all wild and playful and happy! She’s a big pitbull and loves blankies and pillows! She loves snow too!
14.) The Eastern Stare Penitentiary – the old prison has exhibits all year I think. To learn about the history and all but in the Fall they have the haunted attraction! We get to walk through and monsters jump out at us and there’s all kinds of gory stuff and creepy sounds. I don’t always get to go but I always see the advertisements and stuff and it’s fun! The first day I went was years ago in college with a group of other students and we were clinging to each other, holding onto each other, hugging each other like our lives depended on it! Lol it was fun! One funny memory I have is the group of us consisted of all girls and one boy and the boy was the most scared and tried to make us stand in the front and we told him since he’s the boy, he should be leading the way! Lol I was so afraid we were going to be separated and I would be alone in small, dark places! When it was over we got outside and there were candy and caramel apples and monsters dancing and flashing lights!
15.) longer, darker nights
16.) Halloween decorations
17.) Halloween lights
18.) pumpkin pie, apple pie, coconut custard pie
19.) cranberries!
20.) candy doesn’t melt in cool weather
21.) Everything
22.) hay rides
23.) apple spice
24.) apple cider
25.) sweaters
26.) jack – o – lanterns
27.) cool, windy days
28.) it gets dark early
29.) crunchy leaves
30.) sweet potatoes
Fall just thrills me so much!
And since it’s still summer I will honor it with some lovely summery photos I took!
This little beauty was drinking nectar through this bright orange flower all August long! I used to stand there and watch with wonder.
This fly was basking in a light rainy afternoon one day out in my backyard. I captured him and the glistening drops on the vibrant green leaf.
A different fly on the same day on a flower or leaf stem. Aren’t they beautiful?! Flies really can be quite lovely and I have great photographer skills, don’t you think?!
I think so too! 😀
Xoxo Kim
p.s. check out “Cool Night” by Paul Davis!! one of my favorite songs since I was a little girl! ❤
My long lost friend is here once again, Fall!! And what better city to be in than Philadelphia?!?! The cool nights are just about here, I’m already seeing crunchy, colorful leaves appearing, the pumpkin Spice stuff is back!! I’m so happy! Yay!! ;-D
Here’s a poem I like:
“Fall will soon be here again, That special time of year When colored leaves of red and gold Will suddenly appear.
Fall will soon be here again, And joyful I will be Because it is the season When my heart feels glad and free.
Fall will soon be here again; Tomorrow it will start, And I shall feel both happiness And beauty in my heart.
Fall will soon be here again And Summer will be done, But Autumn is the time of year When my life o’erflows with fun.”
~Hope C. Oberhelman
So yeah, as Hall & Oates says “I’m gonna spend another Fall in Philadelphia”!!!
I hope you all are having a beautiful day or night wherever you are! 😉
I wrote this a few days ago and tried to post it but my phone or something wouldn’t allow me so here it is today!
Yay!
When I woke up today I was so hot even with my window open and air coming through. It felt more like Summer than Fall. I love warm weather and the warm seasons but after Summer & Spring should be over, I am definitely in the mood for the magic of the lovely Fall & Winter seasons! <3.
I wasn’t complaining about the weather. All weather has it’s blessings and beauty. But I won’t deny the fact that I have experienced a tinge of disappointment. It has been so incredibly warm here in Philadelphia, Pa and I have felt that the beautiful opportunity for Fall as been taken over by excessive warm weather. But anyway. Warm weather is lovely too and there’s no sense complaining.
But when I was sitting in work I noticed that it started to get very cool. Then all of a sudden, something magical and wondrous happened! It started raining leaves!
Lol ok not literally but it sure looked that way out the window!
The street where the store is that I work at is surrounded by beautiful trees. Many of the branches are now bare and some have crisp fall leaves flowing off and gently landing to the ground.
Suddenly there was a whirlwind of leaves that just started blowing off every tree on the street because of the wind and it looked beautiful and lovely like a splendid Autumn leaf storm!
😀
I also got to thinking about how blessed I am to have the positive work environment that I have.
I know the most wonderful people at work.
Since my mom and dad made me move to a new neighborhood when I was young, I haven’t been blessed with many close friendships. For a while, I actually had none and it caused me deep pain to have no connections to other kids.
Then when I came to college I had to leave my school friends and we lost contact a lot and it was not pleasant. There were moments of unbearable loneliness.
I’m shy and in my neighborhood there was never many kids my age so that combination added up to me being kind of friendless for so long. I wasn’t outgoing enough to go out looking for friends and there was no opportunities right around me like when I was little.
Also, I haven’t always been very close to most of my family either other than my mom, dad, and, sister. My sister is over 10 years younger than me. That’s a significant age difference for kids.
My loneliness got so extreme and often I began to feel not only unloved but un-lovable, also because of some verbal/emotional abuse that has happened in my family. And when I finally found a couple close friends I still struggled with loneliness occasionally even when I wasn’t physically alone. And depression sure doesn’t help that.
I still don’t have many friends or always get to see the ones that I do have as often as I would like.
But at work I am blessed to be surrounded by great and beautiful people that show me incredible acts of love so frequently.
I began to notice this more and more.
I read about a technique that people can do to bring more love and a sense of love into their lives. Make a list each day of acts of kindness and love shown to you by anyone who has done something loving towards you. This will make you feel more loved and appreciated.
People do little loving things every single day that may go almost un-noticed by the receiver. But when you open your mind and heart and begin to be more receptive, you’ll notice at a deeper level.
I haven’t written anything down but I now see more and more how much people do for me.
They go out of their way to help me and compliment me often and smile at me and say hello and I appreciate it more than I can say. And I truly hope they can feel and see my gratitude and love. I’m always saying thank you. And I help them as much as I possibly can with whatever they need.
Are there people showing you kindness and love that you haven’t even noticed or noticed as much as you could have? Look at all the “little” and “simple” acts of kindness that you are receiving day by day. They are actually greater than you may have realized.
When you let them, they can touch your life and brighten your days with tremendous impact.
When someone holds a door for you, offers you a sweet and genuine compliment, has a pleasant conversation with you, trusts you enough to tell you something, smiles at you, is sincerely interested in how you are today….all of these things are amazing acts of kindness.
I hope that you can all feel the amazing love all around you. ❤
A Dose of Inspiration 