Falling in the Dark Tuesday, Oct 28 2008 

Autumn and Holidays and writing , , , , thewritingspider 10:58 am

     It’s about this time of year that I start feeling a little melancholy. First, I wonder why, and then I notice that it’s getting dark at seven pm. By the beginning of November things have evened out a bit but until then, I keep feeling a little sigh inside everywhere I go.

     I find myself turning on all the lights in the house to push back the blanket of autumn evening that manages to settle on my shoulders anyway. I put on my pajamas straightaway after work. I don’t like going out in the evenings much for a while, preferring to curl up on the couch and work on a crochet project or a book. Husband keeps finding me pressed up against him like a cuddle-happy cat.

     I love how autumn smells of wet leaves and spices, of crisp sunshine days and hot chocolate nights. I love Halloween for dressing up, candy corn, and pictures of black cats. And Thanksgiving of course, a grand meal set in a flurry of wind and leaves, and visits with the strangers you call family.

     The world is winding down for a few months, settling itself for a rest of its own, pulling up that blanket of darkness to hush us all, if only for a little while.

 

Charlottes are Gone… Thursday, Oct 2 2008 

Animals and writing , , , , thewritingspider 11:05 am

     Big Charlotte was hanging in during the horrible windstorm we had a few weeks ago. I checked on her a few times – not that I could help, just to see – and she was clinging to the shredded web, nestled down in the mint. A day or so later, they came to cut the grass while I was at work and when I returned she was gone. I wondered if the grass people had ripped up her web or killed her or something… Such a large bug is sometimes too great a temptation for immaturity, and the impulse to HULK SMASH cannot be overcome. Maybe they thought such a big yellow and black spider was poisonous? I don’t know if that’s what happened for sure. But all my writing spiders seem to have gone. 

     A bit later, we had a much smaller Charlotte appear, build a web, then vanish.

     I’m a little sad about this lack of arachnid authors. I’ve come to see them as my scribbling familiars who arrive to usher in autumn, share their silk secrets with me, blessing the garden as they do, and then climb into the shadowy web of the next life. Now that it’s turned chilly I don’t hold hope that another Charlotte will take up residence for the remainder of the season and that makes for a dark October indeed.