It is that time of year again, the leaves are turning into glorious colours, different flowers are blooming in my yard, the tomatoes are slower to ripen and the dusk is arriving sooner each day.

The weather is perfect, cool mornings, hot days and cooling again in the evening. Laundry dances on the line as the breeze lifts and blows the sheets. The clothes seem to want to join in the dance, shirts wave billowing sleeves and towels joyfully tug at the line, in an effort to get free. I firmly put in extra pegs as the items try to leap from my fingers, while I attach them to the line.

The excitement of the breeze makes me feel a little giddy and I feel I want to join in the autumn dance. The urge to walk in the hills and celebrate the scenery is very strong and the dogs benefit by lots of walks with their restless owner. One drawback about this time of year is the sun riding lower in the sky. The way it comes through my deck and back windows highlights the dust.

Last week the sun hit the windows at just the right angle to show up all the doggy noseprints, along with various streaks and smears not previously noticeable. Feeling energetic I got out my Windex and various rags. The outdoor windows I do with vinegar and newspapers, but this is messy indoors so I use good old Windex.

First of all I cleaned out all the window tracks, also know as “fly cemeteries”, then I did the windowpanes. I thought the glass must have been extra dirty as I kept leaving smears. Over and over I did the glass and it seemed to smear more each time. After about an hour of unsatisfactory rubbing, I decided to break for a coffee. It was then I noticed that I had been using Tilex, not Windex so I had been spraying the wrong solution onto the glass and building up a lovely, greasy mess.

I didn’t know whether to cry or throw the offending bottle through the smeary window. However I settled for drinking my coffee and thinking dark thoughts. A week later and I am still living with smears, however, having just hung sheets on the line and fought the busy breeze, while the Sandhill Cranes swirl overhead, with their joyful noise, I think nature has once more given me the needed energy to complete the task, this time with the correct potion.

Too soon this season of restless excitement will fade into the dreary skies of winter, when the ground is sometimes too icy to walk safely and more time is spent indoors.

This darker time of the year gets me down and I can very easily succumb to depression, so I always plan a winter project to keep myself occupied. Winters past have been used for redecorating various parts of the house, recovering furniture, making new drapes for myself or various daughters, in fact anything to keep my mind occupied through the dark days of November and January.

October still gives me lots of opportunities to tidy up the flowerbeds and so many outdoor jobs, but November hits me like a football to the midsection and knocks me for a loop if, I am not prepared. December is very busy with catering jobs and I love making Christmas feasts for various groups in the South Okanagan. January is usually dead and this is when the blues set in. I like to get away for two weeks in the sun at the end of the month By mid February it is almost time to think about getting outside again and pretend that winter is over. Another winter over and all of the year in front of me, yippee I am so glad to be alive. Thankyou God for the changing seasons, but please make winter short, this year.