Five Reasons You Know You're Ready for Autumn

The swimming pools have all closed down. Nobody's wearing white trousers any more. The giant yellow school buses hold up the traffic as they weave their way along suburban streets.

Can only mean that summer is over.

Are you ready for the autumn?

   

How can you tell?

1. You've already bought Halloween candy. What's worse, you've already started eating it!!

2. Dear, dear aunt Louisa calls you to tell you she wants to see your smiling face at Thanksgiving!

3. You're contemplating starving yourself as of right now so that you can eat that turkey!

4. You imagine you saw golden leaves on your driveway. Oh, wait a minute, they were golden leaves!

5. You wish you hadn't bought that cheap looking wreath last year on sale. You just have to hang it on your door, otherwise it wasn't a bargain after all!


                                     

The Parade

We went for a run in the country to a small town north of here. They were having a big parade, and the whole town was lining the main street, awaiting this annual event.

Two policemen directed the traffic. Both imitating one another with their hand signals, and getting confused in the process!

I'm surprised the cars just didn't bang into one another. At first it looked as if the road was blocked off, based on the hand signals of the two policemen. Odd, to be blocking off the road. I think drivers thought so too, but turned left anyhow, instead of going straight.

All this entertainment came to a head when a lone bagpiper strutted down the road, his kilt swirling back and forth. What a noise was coming from the bagpipes!  He really did play quite well, if you like bagpipes, that it is.

Part of the parade was a horse drawn hearse. Guess it's historical.

There were politicians as well in the parade.

As well as a great big fire truck

and farm equipment.

We got talking to a local person who lives up in the hills. He was telling us about his two children who are learning flute and drums at school. They also are into sports. I asked him if they teach Spanish at the school, and he answered, "Well, sure. I think. I mean they teach academics too."

Great to hear that!

Where are YOU from? Where are you FROM?

I started a new blog. Garlic and Olive Oil  It deals with the eight years I lived in Spain, back in the seventies and eighties. It's only now dawning on me that I have been foreigner in two separate countries.

I never thought about it before.

Americans to this day say to me, "Where are YOU from?"  That's after they say, "You're not from around here, are you?"  Then they want to know my whole life history.

"What brought you to America?"
"Do you have any kids?"
"Do they talk like you?"
"Where did you meet your husband?"
"Why did you go to Spain?"
"You haven't lost your accent?!"

At least some things have changed over the years. It used to be that people would ask if I lived in a castle and if there was colour television in Scotland. They even asked where in England Scotland was located!

I'd give them a Geography lesson and try to explain how there are four countries which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain. But nobody ever paid any attention. They were always just fascinated by the way I speak.

Being a foreigner in Spain was completely different. I could hide behind the Spanish language. I could detach myself from conversations very easily. Half the time I had no idea what they were saying!  Even when I learned Spanish, it didn't bother me that people would ask me where I'm from. It was understandable for I have a very pale skin that goes bright red in the sun. I stood out.

But I don't stand out in the United States where there are lots of people with really pale skins.

I just have to work more on a Yankee doodle accent!

Any time I go to the U.K. people there also ask me where I'm from! They ask me if I'm Canadian!

Maybe I should just move to Canada, and be done with it.