Fall Coming! Reflections on Self-Love - Rest; and Old Blogging Locations

I'm in town - the Big Town, Anchorage - got rides to and from my appointment thanks to Craigslist.

I'm at the Anchorage Barnes and Noble - which is, incidentally, a member of the list of places at which I'd blogged before getting internet at home. The connection is slow and I'm not sure when my ride is coming, so I'm going to just write now and add pix later so I'm not caught waiting.

First - I mentioned the herbs I was drying and apologized for no photo - silly me, I had taken photos! Here they are!

Clockwise from top left - raspberry leaves, jalapenos (bargain produce, not from garden!) yarrow flowers, and lovage leaves and seeds. Lovage is a kind of wild celery that grows on the beach - herbal, intense and aromatic.

And here are arugula seed-pods

We have been so lucky so far this fall here in AK: thus far, we've had beautiful fall colors and no windstorms. Here's the hillside of Homer with some fall colors maybe discernible :)

And you can see golden birch leaves behind Phil here:

 Last year, just about the very day the colors turned, a couple huge windstorms blew all the leaves down in a day or two!

But after a glassy-calm day yesterday, last night the wind came in. Phil and I got up at 5am - way earlier than even my early start on the road required - because the wind was howling and wuthering and thumping. It's not just blowing down leaves - whole branches too! Walking around in Anchorage after my appointment, I was literally almost blown over several times! Must have looked like a comedy act, trying to walk along...

I was trying to get a picture of all the leaves and berries being blown down...

Reflections on Self-Love - ah, rest - so important! Tina reminds us that both our minds and bodies need rest - that in order to have the well full, we need to have empty time too. She asks, "How will you rest today?" I love this invitation to commit to that. It's so easy to think that any second that's not accounted for can be filled with more activity. Only recently and slowly have I begun to learn that I need slots of time every day with nothing in them. Especially with my recent body image worries, I've been pushing myself to exercise more, and didn't sleep well last night due to muscle soreness. It's also getting cold here - didn't reach 40 degrees F until well after 9am, and I think I'm more tense when I'm cold.

So, I'm not putting the photos up here yet, and might not even manage to do so until tomorrow. And when I've written this, soon after, I'll go get myself a hot herbal tea and warm myself from inside. And if I can snag one of the comfy armchairs here, I'll lay back in one for a while. Even if I can't, I will sit back and 'rest my eyes' some.

Hope you are having a restful Friday!