September Sucked

Fall is your favourite time of year? Really?? It means summer is over and winter is coming. The darkness gets longer and it hardly gets up to 20C most days. Normally I would have a few good tropical storms - maybe even a hurricane - to look forward to in September, but not this year.  I have officially downgraded my hurricane dress to a tropical storm dress in hopes that I would actually get to wear it, and that hasn't even worked. Maybe October will be better; there is a long weekened, Hallowe'en, candy apples, and Dia de los Muertos ahead, and hopefully a cyclone or two.

This September was particularly sucky because we had to say good-bye forever to our little Sammy puppers. She turned 13 in July, and I guess that really is an unlucky number; I am slowly turning the corner from looking at pictures of her and bawling my eyes out to being able to smile and remember what a great friend she was. Sammy taught me to live in the moment, to slow down  - really slow down this past year - and smell the roses (or spots where other dogs peed, kitty turds, etc.). We put on a lot of kilometers together running and walking over the past 12 years, and we soaked up a lot of sunshine at the beach and out on the deck together. We were kindred spirits. I am planning a video montage in her honour soon, but not yet.

me and Sammy at Caribou Island

It has been raining all week and befittingly gloomy, and we've been consoling ourselves with comfort food and wine:

pasta with meaty tomato sauce and a barrel of wine

cheesy risotto and salmon with what are those...scallops on top? yup 

Finally the sun has come out, and the weekend forecast looks spectacular. Time to get out for a run, swim, bike, paddle + mow the lawn, pull carrots, pick tomatoes, and get back to the new normal.