Harvest-time in Pueblo

Good news: there is autumn in Pueblo! It may not have the same kind of bite, and the foliage may be a good deal more mellow-toned, and we may still get 80 degree temperatures in the afternoons, but there is still a distinct autumn season in Southern Colorado. The leaves are a thick covering over both my front and back yards, for proof (I raked, but you know, wind keeps happening).



I recently had a chance to go OUTSIDE TOWN (gasp!) and into the COUNTRY (double gasp) for Adele's preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch. Whee!

It was gorgeous. Warm, 80 degrees, but with all the trappings of rural autumn around it FELT like fall. In the way that the snow trim on the buildings in Universal Studios, Florida can actually make Hogsmeade Village feel like Scotland.

Anyway. Adele spent the majority of her time at the patch cuddling with this kitten. It just melted in her arms. She worried about it when we left, and went back twice because "She wants me to hold her." this is good, because it distracted her somewhat from the rabbit in the petting zoo who was frantically humping the chicken whenever it got a chance.

 She also got to pet a sheep:

We found a perfect pumpkin after a sunny hay ride through the farm.

And took a very agreeable saunter through the corn maze.

corn maze selfie

I had to take most of that day off of thesis writing, but it was worth it. I always do things far, far earlier than I need to, anyway. For example: today I finished a draft of a paper not due in its final form until December. It's how I roll.

The week of October 10 was rather unproductive, since I not only took Tuesday to go to the pumpkin patch, but we took Wednesday off as a family to see a special visitor to town....

I never really thought I'd be squeeing over being in the same room as Hillary Clinton, but SQUEEEEEE

We waited in line for >2 hours in the unseasonably chilly weather (50s and cloudy. very odd). It was worth it.

Adele gazed upon the first girl president. She is a BIG FAN. We let her watch the convention speech this summer, and a *few* minutes of the first debate, but as Mr. Trump has been considerably raising the age-rating of these events, we haven't let her watch much more. When she watched a few minutes of the VP debate, she scanned Mike Pence and Tim Kaine and asked us, "Mum, why are they both men?" Ah, children in the age of Obama & Hillary.

 

Miles enjoyed this too. We spent the first half of the wait in line reading to him from his children's book about elections. The second half he spent regaling the people ahead of us in line with jokes from his joke book. He's a treat. 

We do know homesickness. I know somewhere Leah is waxing to the end of her pregnancy, and that I won't see my new niece for a very long time. I know that I won't be home, either to Blacksburg or to Rochester, for more than six months. Advent will intensify this longing. But so much about Pueblo is nourishing, is just right, for us. And we hope to see some family over the holidays, right here in our home! It will be our first time hosting a holiday, so Pueblo has given us that, too.

Miles map to get to NY

It says, "Home" and "New York". By Adele.

Please pray that I get a job! We need it.