October

I’ve gotten fonder of the warm months in my old age, but nothing beats October. It’s got my birthday and that holiday with all the candy and real historical significance, outside and inside become the same temperature, and trees really get rolling on those striking fall colors, revealing the yellow and red pigments that were hidden under the green all along. Autumn technically begins in September, but nature’s switch seems to flip only in October.

It’s an invigorating and fun time of year, and after a stubborn summer, I’ll take it.

Not many photos this time around; over the weekend I drove down to West Fork’s Bullwick Farms to get some pumpkins and photos of pumpkins. If you live around here and are looking for some, you might try them out, because their specimens are pretty much perfect.

Thanks for looking! And happy fall.

Dan

I underestimated downtown Springfield, Mo., on Friday night. With the First Friday art walk, at least one high school’s homecoming, Halloween coming up and the square’s usual contingent of punk teenagers and low-income adults, there was no shortage of interesting people and interesting images.

One boy with a neon green shirt rode around the square on a neon green bike. Another guy, with purple hair and purple shirt and purple bike, taught how to play a harmonica to a grizzled old biker dude with a beer gut. Teens clumped together, skateboards in hand, looking around as if searching for a challenger to their dominance. A rock band played Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” across the street. Women loaded dozens of bridal dresses into a trailer for a tent sale the next day. A boy in costume as the Tenth Doctor ran around with a sonic screwdriver and a ukulele. Two women carefully applied zombie make-up to two other women. More restrained and respectable-looking couples and grandparents and families milled around, going from restaurants to galleries to bars, then to the live jazz band in the square. It felt like all life was there, to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite movies.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my images of it. In other news, I think I’m getting better at this street thing.

Dan