I am an autum spirit, always have been. If it's dark and dim or blustery, if it's slightly decrepit and rusting, if there are blowing leaves and sullen gray skies and the threat of rain I am in my very happiest place. But something has happened to me this summer since I adopted Thing 1 and Thing 2. Our daily walks in Tower Grove Park mean that I have been, all summer long, much more attuned to the rhythms of nature than at any other time in my life. Since June I have watched the coneflowers bloom and begin to fade, I've seen the geese arrive and fly away again, I've watched mushrooms grow and duckweed take over the lily pond. Watching these things happen has been a delight, and watching them begin to fade is making me nostalgic for summer in way that I was not expecting, and haven't been since grade school.