Revived!

Fall in Central Texas: When all living beings give a great sigh of relief. Another sweltering summer has been sternly put to bed and the grownups can finally have that long-awaited pinot grigio in peace.

The birds chirp more cheerfully, all atwitter after a long drink from birdbath (which, miracle of miracles, has water!). 

Grass stalks grow tall and handsome, their golden seeds catching the angled sun. Flowers erupt from dormant bulbs deep in the earth where they ever so smartly rode out the long weeks of hundred degree days.

Color springs from bushes that hung on so faithfully, desperately, during drought.  The sky lifts and clears, dispelling the humid, suffocating haze to reveal the high blue sky that was there all along. 

My roses and marigolds are, it seems, actually roses and marigolds. I was beginning to wonder.

Ah, fall -- when a young girl's fancy turns to...the best yard sales of the year!

Because fall also ushers in the biological need to nest.  Winter is coming and we simply can't make it through the long cold months with the same drab accoutrements.  The richest among us go to the richest of stores, but the rest of us -- well, we are the lucky ones. We can pick up their gently used dregs for mere pennies on the dollar.  (DFG tip: It's best to target your Saturday morning garage sale route to the neighborhoods you wished you lived in.)

A new creamer, fifty cents, to add to my small collection. I have become deeply attached to pouring into my morning coffee sweetly warmed half-milk/half half-n-half from an honest pitcher. It just tastes better.

Vintage lime and cream rooster bowls. For a buck. I mean, come on!

A brand new (used) desk ($5) and painted lamp ($10 -- they drove a hard bargain) from whence I sit and compose my missives to you. Ah, so civilized!

Sweaters! (Is it not a miracle in itself that one can even imagine wearing sweaters when not 6 weeks ago I clawed at even the thinnest film of cotton touching my clammy skin.)

With all these new treasures, I had to give into the foyer's incessant begging for sunflowers and mini-pumpkins to accompany the newly returned jackets on the coat rack.

Don't you love how their stems come with their own curly ribbon. So clever.
Good heavens, winter had better get here soon. This blathering perkiness is frightening me!