alchimie | and the gray fades to blue

At last, a misty autumnal morning, cold enough that even smol daughter (who is usually a furnace) was complaining; I addressed her complaint by sharing my warmest winter socks, after which smol son wanted some too, so all three of us put cosy socks on our feet and delighted in warmth. I am still not certain how my large socks fit upon smol son's tiny feet, but he was pleased with the outcome so I will let it be an October mystery.

Now they are both at school and I am with my laptop; I have been trying to talk myself into doing something more than drinking coffee and petting the cat, but I am beginning to think I ought to just relax and enjoy the free time, rather than continuing to push myself (and everyone else) to pull out one of the many shelved projects and get to work on it. It has been a lot of substantial tasks these last few months, with the beginning of school, a volunteer program at the school which had to be gotten underway, then the camping trip and smol daughter's birthday party in quick succession. Why not relax a bit, not as time stolen from between other tasks but with some intention?

We have been playing with Spotify over the last few weeks, and today it rewarded us with our very first 'discovery weekly' playlist of music it thinks we might like. The algorithm amuses me greatly -- why yes, I did like that acoustic cover of "Under Pressure" last week, so you are right that I might well like a bilingual (English/Chinese) ukelele cover of Coldplay's "Yellow". I wish I could pet it and give it treats to reward it for its insight and enthusiasm, but I suppose I must content myself with the heart-shaped 'like' button instead.

My misty morning is slowly becoming a warm and sunny day; it is California, after all, one cannot expect the gray skies to last. But I enjoyed it while it was, and perhaps tomorrow there will be more. The trees along the route I drive to my children's school are beginning to change in earnest; there is one in particular upon which the leaves are turning a startling shade of mahogany en masse, not a colour I am used to seeing so much of at once in nature. I might stop on the way home and take some pictures one day this week.