Today I am grateful for...

Cheetos, snack food of the gods....mmmmmm, thank you!

Pomegranate tea on closeout, when I actually had money to buy some--and now it is mine, all mine! *grin*

Inexpensive votive candleholders from the thrift store.

An open window.

Books by Manda Scott about Boudica, the Eceni warrior... the novels are fiction, but she was real. People today call her a British Queen but really she was a warleader, like one of our highest generals today. Reading these books made me realize the Celts were as British as they were Irish, Scots, or Welsh in the beginning. The first book is called "Dreaming the Eagle" if you would like to read them.

The feeling of roots these books gave me--something that was lacking for most of my life.

Walking my doglet, and having such a wonderful, beautiful, peaceful, charming neighborhood to walk her in.

Warm sunshine alternating with shade. (I know, absolutely AMAZING considering how I have always hated the sun!)

Living where I can appreciate warm sunshine, instead of seeing it as my deadliest enemy. (I'm very susceptible to sun poisoning and heatstroke, and living in the desert was torture to me.)

Winter's inevitability, whispered in the morning wind.

The neighborhood park, peaceful, full of birdsong, red berries, and light green pears hanging heavy on a tree. Too bad tis a TALL tree. *gentle laugh*

Brown acorns almost as big as small eggs, so that four make a big handful.

Meeting new people in the neighborhood.

Watching my newly-made social butterfly of a doglet meet new people in the neighborhood.

Green acorns almost as big as small eggs, with FRINGE hanging from the caps! They look like Cousin It... or hippies with bad haircuts.

Water carried on the evening breeze.

Black skies with an ivory moon.

Getting the laundry done.

Talking to a friend who was also getting the laundry done. *smiling*

Watching all five of the furbabies come, one by one, to greet her... she isn't my friend alone; even the Skitty Kitty (Module Four) came out to say hello, and she hides from everyone.

Making garden plans with my friend, plotting out what we'll do come spring.

Laundry finished, and bedtime at last.

The sweetness of a happy dog, leaning against someone she has come to love and trust, and who loves her just as much.

The sweetness of falling asleep as a family, people, doglet, cat all sharing the bed... well, okay, the cat was in his own private cubby in the bookshelf we use as a headboard, with his pillow and blanket for a cushion *grin* but he was holding Gryph with one paw and it made us both feel like purring, ourselves.

Blue skies with bright morning sun.

Cornbread with butter.

Milk, and Gryph's insistence that it be "whole cow or no cow".... so, whole milk without guilt--no more skim! *YAY!*

Hippies with bad haircuts drying overnight into miniature Medusas, with wildly curly flyaway fringe.

Being able to walk the dog farther than before, because it isn't so hot.

Late cannas, glowing in the sunshine.

Late roses going to hips.

Purple hibiscus.

Double purple hibiscus! Looks like a completely different flower, too--more like old-fashioned roses.

Squirrels with tails longer than they are.

Polite squirrels, who stop and wait to see what I'm saying when I t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t softly at them. Not that it makes any sense to them, mind you... I evidently only speak some sort of babytalk babble. *grin*

Flame-orange mini trumpet flowers on a lovely vine, and the internet... it's taken me half an hour, but I found it! Ipomoea coccinea, the red morning glory or "redstar." I want this vine! It self sows readily... *whistles innocently, passing by, looking for seed capsules* It should only take one.... *eyebrow waggle* I had thought at first this vine might be cardinal creeper (another morning glory), but the flowers are more orange than scarlet and the leaves are VERY different, not fringed at all, but heart-shaped like a cross between ivy and grape leaves. I didn't think to look under morning glories for a long time, because the flowers stay open all day.

Heartpods still hanging on the tree.

Yellow leaves, falling from the black walnut trees already. The trees are half-aglow, half green; the sidewalks are scuffily yellow.

The sound of leaves scuffing underfoot! *grin*

Yellow leaves on the sycamores--just a few, here and there.

The first red maple leaves! Just tinges of red on creamy yellow, three leaves and the rest of the tree covered in deep-green--the rest of all the maples covered in deep green!--but there they are, the first three red leaves of Autumn!

Cardinals, brighter red than before, winging past.

Squawky starlings, spiffy in their new spots.

Birds I don't recognize and couldn't begin to identify flying overhead.

A tiny sparrow clinging to the handle of a faucet, ever-so-carefully turning its whole body upside-down to snag a dropping drip of water.

The rest of the flock swooping around the porch and eaves, waiting their turn.

"Our backyard woodpecker," perched on a telephone wire.

Spiky seedheads on the weeds, looking for all the world like matte miniatures of those "sputnik" type holiday ornaments so popular in the 1960s.

Noticing a long thin charcoal grey feather on the sidewalk.

Realizing I had been carrying it through the neighborhood for blocks without feeling the least self-conscious.

Giving it a new home in the former squash pot, which is now a pansy pot.

A big black lab/golden retriever cross, running free through the neighborhood, deciding not to bother us.

Seeing a house for sale and thinking, "nope, not for me--tis at ground level on the low point of the street, susceptible to flooding..." and then realizing, oh, I can tell whether I'm going uphill or downhill now, even on a slope I can't really see... that's new!

Feeling and tasting new things on the wind: winter and the promise of bitter cold with snow and ice (well, bitter cold to me, anyhow, lol); water and the hint of possible rain the next day but probably not; mellow sunwarmed days staying a while.... this sense is also new!

Instructions and recipes for acorns and black walnuts, and databases filled with flower and tree pictures on the internet.... what a wonderful place it is! It has grown exponentially since I first came online. What a treasure!

Realizing that I am settling in for the winter, that it is Autumn and I am gearing myself to colder weather... and slowly over the days recognizing that I don't need to buy a house right now, that instead I need to stay in my little apartment home which will be snug and warm on high ground with the radiators going. Winter in the Midwest is not the time to become a new homeowner... so if we are meant to buy a house, it will be there come Spring or Summer.

Inner peace.