A Rusting World

Dear Diary,

First frost this morning but the impatients and pertunias are still okay, amazingly.  Auntie's tree is protecting them I guess.  I've been a bit under the weather the last couple of days myself.  I did manage to walk over to my neighbor's house to photograph the side of his barn.  Poor Harvey.  He is in a nursing home now after a stroke over a year ago.  The house is for sale.  He and his wife were such good neighbors to me for 20 years.  She died in 2011.

The world around me is "rusting"...that's what I call the slow transition of the leaves and plants to that particular shade characteristic of late October and early November.  They are in their final stages before winter turns everything black and white.

Since my visit to the Tasha Tudor museum last week I have been looking at the books I have about her.  I found her obituary which I saved from 21 June 2008.  I love her feelings about growing old:  "It is the most wonderful thing to grow older," she said. "The older you get, the more delightful life becomes."  I think I would agree with her.  In my younger days I doubt I would have taken any delight in rusted tin siding on an old barn, etched with shadows.