It's very pretty in my neighborhood these days.  Color is not quite peak but it's getting there.  There was heavy, heavy fog this morning.  Cloudy and foggy skies bring out the best colors--sun sort of bounces off of the leaves so the colors aren't as intense.  We're getting to peak color, but, as always, we'll have a storm that will blow off a bunch of the leaves.  NO!  Please no!  Don't grab the leaves!  It always ends up being beautiful anyway.

We still haven't had a killing frost, which is strange for late Sept.  My cosmos are at peak.  I picked a big bouquet yesterday to take to Linda's.  It was very, very pretty.  We had dinner together, along with a couple we know.  Yes, Linda and I are often considered to be a couple.  Like my friend Lin.  We're often paired up, too.  We used to go to the dump together every weekend & I'm sure Dump Lady thought we must live together.  I go to the dump by myself now--I should say to D.L. "we broke up."

There's a peaceful air around my house these days--the noise and traffic of summer people are gone.  It was really, really still during the weekend, not a sound except for the occasional flock of geese.  That sounds pretty corny, but it was great.  I sat outside & read a bit, painted my new (big and white) mailbox & made a mess of it, cleaned a bit (not nearly enough), read some more, took a long walk with the dogs.  It's early bear hunting season, which I forgot until we were deep in the woods.  I was wearing a black vest & the dogs are brown & bear-ish.  Duh.  I felt really stoopid so I made a lot of noise.  "YES, THAT'S A GOOD GIRL, TESS.  HELLO CHANCES, HOW ARE YOU?"

I walked past the riding rings that were used by the girls' camp many years ago.  The rings aren't recognizable as riding rings anymore, but my sister & I can find them & remember what they were like.  There were horses at the camp, about 6 or 8.  Some years my sister & I would spend all morning watching the girls' ride in the rings, taking their daily riding lessons.  We were unbelievably jealous but of course we survived.  I don't think we ever thought through what it would mean to be at camp, we just wanted the riding part.

When we were growing up in Rkfd. we went to a dude ranch-type place run by a woman named Ceil Nelson.  For $50 a week she'd host girls, feed them, have them spend the nights, and, best of all: have them ride horses every single day.  Molly and I were in hog heaven.  We just adored being there.  I don't even remember who else was there the week we were, but I remember that we rode horses named Maggie and Jiggs.  They were twin-like black & white paints.  We rode them because we were sisters so we should have twin horses.  There was supposed to be a horse show at the end of our week, but it rained the last day so Ceil gave each of us a prize for something we'd done well during the week.  I won 1st prize for cantering because there was a day when I got my horse to canter without any trouble.  What was the prize?  An ashtray with a picture of horses on it.  I can understand now that she rounded up odds & ends to give as prizes, but really--an ashtray?  I kept the ashtray for years & years. 

I think I was in 4th grade & Molly was in 5th.  That was when my very best friend was Janet Michaelson.  One of the things I liked about her was that they had a color television.  This was 1961 or '62 so it must have been a revolutionary thing.  Every Sunday night I'd get to go to her house to watch Bonanza in color.  Nice of my parents (and hers) to arrange transportation for that, huh.  My parents gave it their best shot at being friends with Janet's parents.  The Michaelson's were into sports cars & had a beautiful Corvette.  They were also Shriners, which was so not like my family.  My parents went to a Shriner event where Mrs. Michaelson was named Princess of something.  My father always said it was Princess Pippsissiwa but I don't think that was it.

Once I was out for dinner with my friends at a nice restaurant here and it was Shriners' night.  Every man brought in a little hat box that held his fez.  Most of the men were pretty old and shaky.  There was a big fuss when it was discovered that two of them had their fezes mixed up.  The other thing I remember about the Shriners is that they rode in these teeny cars in every parade.  Sort of like the Barbie cars they have for kids now.