Fall Diaries: "Following Daddy Long Legs at Burke Lake, The Gold & the Beautiful, & Other Stories"

"THE PERFECT FALL AFTERNOON"

📸 OCTOPHOMO 2019: Day 26

Even the most mundane of chores and errands become festive in Fall. The sunset casts the perfect glow on the trees in my backyard and across the street. A simple glance out the window is God's perfection. It's so peaceful to look at after the kind of junk my mind is bombarded with during the day. 

"ICEBERG! RIGHT AHEAD!"

📸 OCTOPHOMO 2019: Day 27

My brain is panic struck, and that panic is not fading any time soon. It's been an overwhelming routine - similar to that of the person sitting in the crow's nest of a ship's lookout! I am supposed to scream "Iceberg Right Ahead!" as I watch over the renovation work being done at home. The crazies are morning people and my vampirish lifestyle is no match for that kind of thing. They would come knocking at the door as early as 8 (who does that?) and would leave, after giving me a case of nerves from all day vigilance, around 6pm. My morning shower routine had reset to nighttime soaks in hot water! By nightfall, I used to fall! Literally! Being tied to a nutsy routine like that is brain damaging. I found that she-skeleton laying around in the Halloween section at Giant and I was like "Hi there sister, I feel you!"

"THE GOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL"

📸 OCTOPHOMO 2019: Day 27

A yet another angle of the gold the sun casts every dusk hour in my neighborhood. Trees have been intimidating so far but I have a feeling I am about to make friends with them.

"FOLLOW THE SPIDERS"

📸 OCTOPHOMO 2019: Day 28 (Photo credit: Eff Zee, my Supernatural buddy!)

I spoke too soon! A dozen Daddy Long Legs greeted Sara and I yesterday (Oct 27) when we headed to Burke Lake, Fairfax, Virginia for a much awaited Fall picnic. We had the Aragog and clan encounter moment from the Forbidden Forest and we got to be Harry Potter (myself) and Ron Weasley (Sara) for the day. The two of us are not nature girls even though we've had our fair share of jungle encounters on our trips to Blue Mountains, Australia, Vancouver, Canada, Tioman Island and Langkawi, Malaysia, and the jungle safari in Sri Lanka. We have encountered gianormous moths, foot long lizards, and various other bugs in these areas but Daddy Long Legs needs a standing ovation. Are we fans of Aragog from our beloved Wizarding World? Me, yes! Sara, no! But Daddy Long Legs, we are not your fans in any sense of the word! 

"FRAMEWORTHY"

📸 OCTOPHOMO 2019: Day 29 (Photo credit: Sara)

"Frameworthy" --- my friend SNQ used that word for this photograph. Truly! This is like God's canvas, right there for Mankind to take away! It feels gifted, Alhamdulillah (All Praise for God) to be part of this frame. There was a point in my life when I always Googled photos like these to visually aid my poetic compositions. Now --- my life's a beautiful poem. It's a beautiful Gothic poem but poetry!

"UP ABOVE"

📸 OCTOPHOMO 2019: Day 30

I loved taking this photograph! I was right under this hundred foot tall tree! --- Photo is not doing justice --- This was a canopy of trees I was under (maybe for the 2nd time in life). I was TERRIFIED of the bugs beneath my feet but still, the view above was worthwhile. When I think of such tall trees, my mind starts thinking "damage" because that's what they mean for my work and home management life. But that day, at Burke Lake, I wanted to give thought to the beautiful aspect of these magnificent skyscrapers of nature. 

"DOWN BELOW"

📸 OCTOPHOMO 2019: Day 31

While clear blue skies and crisp sun greeted me through the forest canopy of trees above, there was mushy, rain-soaked ground, and colorful leaf pile beneath. Glad I wore my boots that day, sneakers were a bad choice! The forest floor is no easy path to walk on. Slippery with wet, decaying leaves, uneven with ancient tree roots bursting out like overgrown veins, and crawling with a habitat, a world of its own. So far, this Fall has been beautiful.