HELLO, OCTOBER! 🎃🎃🎃

 Welcome, October! Fall is here, and I’m so looking forward to cooler weather, beautiful leaves, frosty mornings, the whole shebang. And it will now time for Howl-o-weenie Wednesday, too. Be sure to check us out this Wednesday!

Have a wonderful Monday and a great week ♥️

HELLO, NOVEMBER!

Hello, NOVEMBER!

Cool, crisp air . . . Leaves crunching underfoot . . . Fall smells of burning leaves, hot cider, pumpkin bread . . . the woods ablaze with color.

Those are merely a few of the things I love about NOVEMBER. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it emphasizes family and thankfulness. And, there are three birthdays we celebrate in our family.

We can’t forget to include our beloved doxies for NOVEMBER:

Have a great Monday and a great month, doxie lovers!

WHERE IS DUKE?

 I took this photo of our yard (and Duke) just this morning. Can you find him? 

Clark and me on our wedding day:
we were so young!

Ah, the leaves!  We had 16 straight days of rain here in Georgia, ending on Monday, finally. When I let Duke out, I saw that he was enjoying smelling the fall leaves, so I decided to snap the photo of our yard. All the leaves haven't yet fallen, as you can see across the street to our neighbor's yard, but Clark is itching to get out there and clean it up once again. I told him that it will be covered within 15 minutes after he gets all those leaves up, but he says he has to stay ahead of it or he'll never get it cleared out. There are woods all around our house, and our backyard backs up to woods as well.

He subs in our county schools most days, so he won't have the opportunity to do the yard until Saturday--at this point, the weather app on my cell says isn't supposed to rain then.

Fall is my favorite time of the year. Clark returned from Vietnam in November 1970. We were engaged before he left, so I had an entire year to plan our wedding. We wed in December that year.

Happy fall, y'all!

King of the rock

HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!

It's no secret to those who know me that fall is my favorite season!  The beautiful leaves, the nip in the air, pumpkins, no mosquitoes, no sweating, lower humidity!

Enjoy these fall doxies:

Dachshunds . . . you gotta love 'em!

TIGERS AND DACHSHUNDS: HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL

Those who know me know how much I adore tigers.  I also adore the fall season, so here are some photos of both!  Aren't they gorgeous??

And, since this is a blog about dachshunds and dachshund books, at the end are a couple of photos of "fall dawgs."
 

Dachshunds (and tigers) . . . you gotta love 'em!!

SUMMER IS WANING . . .

Since it is now September, I hear wailings and disappointment from so many about summer waning, with fall just around the corner.  The doxie above certainly seems to enjoy summer and the beach, given the fact that his nose is covered in sand!

I am one who happens to love the fall season with the nip in the air, the colorful leaves, clear sunshine, and so many more things:  the anticipation of the family birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays to come!  In our family, we have an anniversary in September, a birthday in October, three in November, and one in December, along with two anniversaries--not to mention Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  So, we stay pretty busy the last half of the year. 

My late mother's birthday was in December, the SAME DAY as our youngest daughter Bethany's.  It will be a bittersweet birthday for her this year--and for the rest of us as well.

In any case, I am thankful for the beautiful seasons of the year, with each one having special things that are enjoyable.  My husband just retired from teaching last year, and although I still teach part-time online, it seems odd when we see school buses on the road and we aren't in the classroom.  The first few weeks are always crazy, but fun, and enjoyable getting to know new students and catching up with former students.

Yes, summer is on its way out--but exciting times are coming the rest of the year.  The Lord has given us so much beauty to enjoy all year long!

IN A BLAZE OF GLORY

My article below is published today in BINDINGS, my publisher's blog in THE CHRISTIAN POST magazine. The direct link is http://blogs.christianpost.com/bindings/in-a-blaze-of-glory-11860/

Golden yellow . . . burnt orange . . . flaming red . . . the fall of the year is literally a feast for the eyes as trees turn from various shades of green to all those bright hues that beckon us to the mountains, the woods, or even our own backyards.

My family lived in Virginia near the Blue Ridge Parkway for eleven years. Every October, we made our annual trek to the Parkway to view the glorious foliage, and we were never disappointed. Along with the stunning colors, we were delighted with the nip in the air, apple harvests, picnics beside mountain streams, and walks along wooded trails. We often collected those bright leaves to make collages, tangible reminders throughout the year of God’s color palette and His striking creativity in nature’s shapes, sizes, and hues.