browns and greens

Just as the sun was coming up last tuesday morning (6:30am, to be exact), all six of the school going members of our family pulled out on their bikes. In another month it will be dark when they leave, but september offers enough light I can watch them all the way down the street and around the corner. The new addition to the family peloton is our kindergarten girl. She had a pretty nasty crash on that tacked-on bike this summer, but is back on now and fully addicted. She cried when I picked her up in the car tuesday afternoon.

"But I want to ride my 'hook-a-long' home!" she wailed. "Couldn't you have at least picked me up in the bike trailer?!"

And just like that the daytime head count at home went from seven to two. Tuesday was spent regrouping from the chaos of school beginnings; wednesday went to laundry. Thursday I packed up the baby (and the extra baby I had for the day) and went on a two hour walk. With the temperatures still in the 90's, it is amazing how much green has lasted. Green going brown rapid pace, with all the yellows and orange and reds of fall close behind.

The flowers are drying out and the lawns dying all along our walk, but still the dense greens linger. All of these colors and the slight calm of the school day had my mind shifting to cooler days and autumn colors.

Over the weekend I pulled out my wool and cast on three projects. Yes, three. That is one more knitting project than I managed to pull off the whole summer. But I couldn't decide which to start first: the sweater, the hat, or the vest.

So I started all three.

In a certain sense it makes perfect sense to have three different knitting projects going at once, in the same way it makes complete sense that I am usually reading three or four books at a time. A hat takes a different level of concentration than a vest, which requires something much different from a sweater. A little something for whatever timeframe and energy level I've got to offer; a little something for the temperature and colors of the day.

A little something for the change of season, hoping that the fall can linger.