So here's the game plan: As autumn creeps ever further south, the air gets cooler, the pollen floats more insistently, the leaves change colors (though, due to the drought, they mostly just turn shades of brown) and fall. If you have been noticing, the past few nights, the moon rises later in the evening and further north in the eastern sky each night, large and luminous. Soon, pumpkins will be carved and frightening little children will swarm around our doors, threatening us with mayhem and probably dressed like Kristen Stewart and/or Robert Pattinson. We will throw candy at them and hope that they go away. And if I keep my promises, then for a little while at least, I will be posting here again, and using photographs from the last days of summer at the lake to remember when days were long and life was good.

So, let's stretch and greet the day . . .

. . . take in the view with our morning coffee . . .

. . . look around to see what interesting things might capture our attention during the day . . .

. . . and pause to reflect that such beauty only shows up in our lives once in a blue moon. But if we are paying attention, that is more than enough.