seasonal

It's a Wednesday night. It's also autumn and very beautiful. I pretty much always love this time of year. Memories of childhood and adolescence are intricately wound up in this season for me. The smells, the feel of the air, all the little indications that fall is here and winter is coming connect in my mind to events and emotions of years past.

I came across a little garter snake today. It was really tiny and so cute. When you pick up a garter snake they let off a stinky scent--it must be an escape tool. I remember this from when I was a kid. I can distinctly recall the smell. I caught hundreds of snakes. In the swamp below where I lived, at this lake I used to go to, all over the place. Garter snakes and bullsnakes. Sometimes snakes got loose in our house, and my Mom would find them a few days later, curled up by the fireplace.

Some thing are different now. But fall is still crisp and falling leaves and cottonwoods.