A Wanderers Musings: Happy Fall!

I am usually not in the US for fall, and where we have been living for the past seven years (Taiwan and Shenzhen, China) don’t really have fall. In the fall in Taiwan and Shenzhen, the Bauhinia (Orchid) trees bloom and in Shenzhen we also have the Cassia trees in bloom.

Bauhinia blossoms

Bauhinia line our street.

Cassia blossoms

The only fall-color we get in Shenzhen.

But no leaf color change. So being in California this year, I have been enjoying what fall we get here.

Love the varying colors.

The liquid amber trees add bright reds and oranges.

Love, love, love!

Beautiful!

I took my camera up to Nojoqui Falls last weekend to capture the oaks there.

Leaves in the creek.

Oak leaves are more gold.

Little waterfall.

Nice light coming through the trees.

Love the reflected light in the water.

More gold...

Halloween has changed a bit since I lived in the US too. For one thing, there are many more adults dressing up. Mom and Monica both had appointments at the Sansum oncology department; the oncology department was all dressed up as characters from Peter Pan: Monica’s nurse was Peter Pan, Mom saw Captain Hook.

The only picture I got of the oncology group--Nana and Smee.

I saw many random adults dressed up on the street, in the grocery store and even at the bus stop.

Interesting bus stop angel.

Then there was trick or treating at businesses; and a lot less trick or treaters at our house that night.

Trick or treaters at the strip mall; and during daylight hours.
Not the way we did trick or treat.

I thought it was kind of sad; part of the fun of Halloween was the coming together of neighborhoods—seeing all your friends out walking around in the neighborhood; seeing all the cute neighbor kids come to your door. Sad that it’s become so impersonal. But we kept the faith--we carved jack-o-lanterns, decorated our doorway (not scary--friendly!), had pumpkin veggie soup baked in a pumpkin and baked and decorated halloween cookies to give to our friends and the nurses at the oncology department.
ps--sorry for the formatting issues--I couldn't figure out how to get it to work right--it looked great when I wrote it, but for some reason when it publishes it moves around the text. Sorry!