I’m used to November being a gray, cold month.  Bare branches except a few orange leaves that refuse to fall, and a good chance of the year’s first snow.  November in Charleston was completely different.  It was bright foliage and crimson-bowed garland, yellow leaf-lined streets with no need for long sleeves.  Orange, yellow, red, and green…and more than enough sunshine to enjoy all of it.  I doubt I could survive a summer in South Carolina, but November…yes.

A few images from our trip to Charleston and Savannah, ooohhh, 5 months ago.  Better late than never?  We only spent a morning in Savannah, stopping first at the Bonaventure Cemetery before visiting Flannery O’Connor’s childhood home (which Jason wrote about here.)  It was grey, quiet, completely empty, and I took too many pictures of red autumn leaves tangled with spanish moss.  Naturally.

Contax 645 | Portra 400

Last Sunday we went to the Topsfield Fair.  It was October perfection.  Jason wrote about it for his Halloween blog (which of course you’re following…), so I won’t try to describe it.  I’ll just copy what he wrote and you can read the rest on his blog:

Honestly, I secretly believe that these places aren’t set up. That they’re unexplained alternate dimensional phenomena that just happen to line up with our own inclinations at this time of year. I can’t explain it otherwise. Their pumpkins grow to mind-bogglingly monstrous sizes. You have to do a currency exchange for tickets in order to participate in anything. Copyright doesn’t exist. Ordinary farm animals demand queuing up and gawking at. Cheap toys are the pinnacle of material excess and are suddenly worth all your efforts, industries, and ambitions. Complicated rides that in our world take multiple engineers, manufacturers, safety inspectors, and testing go up in minutes and are entrusted with our precious children. The massive staff that is needed to run one of these come out of nowhere like Oompa Loompas expatriated from hidden shores. You can survive on sugar and fat for longer than the FDA would lead us to believe.  Read more

She’s still talking about that corn on the cob.