As is very apropos for the third week of October, this week’s delights are very fall based.

• It’s starting to look very fall like around here with a lot of pretty leaves. I feel like we don’t always get good color around here, but I feel like the leaves are holding up their end of the bargain this year.
• I like that the people in my neighborhood are super into decorative gourds on their stoops. I live in a neighborhood of rowhouses and you just walk around and it’s house after house with decorative gourds lined up the three or four stairs on their stoop leading into their house. I approve.
• I do like the large array of squash that I see, but I am particularly fond of the goose neck squash. It really does look like a goose! I did not buy one for myself because I have a very simple display of mini pumpkins that start small-ish on my bottom step and ascend just slightly larger to the top. I enjoy seeing them in other people’s displays though.
• It’s not true of all parts of Baltimore, but even though I live in the middle of a city it is very naturey around here. I don’t have to walk very far from my house to see lots of wildlife. The rich people neighborhood just to the north that I walk through every morning where people actually have yards has tons of wildlife. I see lots of bunnies, foxes, and most recently deer. Actually the deer freak me out a little because they are way too comfortable with people. These deer do not startle at all. They’ll be munching away in somebody’s yard and they don’t blink an eye when I have to walk very near them to get by. They are very cool to look at at though, and I’m not the one being annoyed by them eating all my vegetation.
• My friends had their annual Oktoberfest party this weekend. It’s always a good time, and we had great fall weather for it. Lots of German and fall inspired food plus fresh pressed apple cider that we put the kids to work making in the cider press my friend rents every year. A good time with good friends.
• Need a chair? This is a random game my husband and I play with each other. There are a surprising number of random chairs littered along roads and various other places. Whenever one of us sees one we ask the other need a chair? They are remodeling the space that was a movie theater in my neighborhood that closed at the beginning of COVID so another theater can move in. My husband walked by there yesterday and saw a bunch of the old chairs being tossed in a dumpster so he texted me a photo and asked need a chair? Despite telling him that I obviously did, he did not bring me back any movie theater chairs.

And now for your musical delights

• I continued to listen to the Spotify playlist I mentioned last week and reminded myself of the song “Be My Stars” by local Baltimore artist Cris Jacobs. I adore this song, and I was happy to hear it again.

• I heard the song “Strut” by Sheena Easton on the radio driving home from the Oktoberfest party. I could not tell you the last time I heard that song. It is very 80s sounding and I’m not sure that I like it as much as I once did, but I remember loving that song when I was a small child. It came out when I was only 6. We had some neighbors who lived next door with boys named Craig and Mike that were about my sister and my’s age who we used to play with. They moved after we had only been there a couple years, but I still have a distinct memory of hearing this song on a record at their house.