JP in the Air

“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” (George Santayana)

I miss my Dad. When the weather gets that little crispiness in the air in the morning, when the breeze is cooler than it has been in months, when the leaves start turning brown and falling to the ground and Bambina picks them up to collect them (not realizing that there will be thousands more to follow these three precious gems she's just catalogued).

My Dad and Bambina spent hours upon hours searching for, assessing, and collecting leaves last Fall. This photo is from one of their many breaks in walking, which is why I think they loved each other so much and got along so well. I was always looking to get somewhere on a schedule; Bumpa and Bambina had nowhere to be but with each other for the foreseeable near future. They walked at the same pace, could focus on the same thing (ie, two seemingly ordinary brown leaves) for what seemed like an eternity to me, and both held little regard for my protestations of "It's getting chilly; we should go in," "Why don't we go in and get some nice lunch now?" or "Seriously, we've got to go now; we've been out here for an hour." My Dad would just say, "Hell's fire! Leave the wean alone! She's havin' fun! You go in if you're bothered; we'll come in when we're done."

So I took this photo (and a few others) and went inside, leaving my Dad to his grandparent's prerogative: banishing his kid so he could finally and at long last have REAL fun with his grandkid.