Well, it’s right about the time of year when I start to try to get my holiday/seasonal mystery books accumulated… I live down here in San Antonio, Texas, and the weather just doesn’t cooperate with my seasonal cravings. I know from my past living experiences, that it is indeed the beginning of autumn… with leaves changing their colors, and a little chill in the air as you go about your morning activities. Not so here! We are experiencing upper 80s to low to mid 90s…. (I know it sounds like sour grapes that I would actually be brazen enough to “complain” about what people consider glorious San Antonio weather…)
I have already gotten out my fall candles that give the house an aroma of cinnamon apples and pumpkin spices… but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it! It’s about this time of year that I start relying on my cozy mystery authors to bring the “autumnal chill” into my life… since the only chill I feel around here is when I’m in the frozen foods section of my local grocery store.
We moved to San Antonio fifteen years ago, after having lived in places like Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, Connecticut, Iowa, Nebraska… (etc) At the time of our “transplant” to this area, we were surprised by the lack of trees in the housing developments. It was as if the builders simply bulldozed down everything… so that they could put the houses as close to each other as they dared. So, it was left up to us to put the trees into our yards… We decided that the Monterrey Oaks were the way for us to go… they are basically an evergreen tree… only shedding their leaves for about three weeks each year. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about how much I would miss the different colors of “normal” trees. (At the same time, I do remember the raking that was the cost of that beauty!)
Anyway, long story… to say this… I now rely on many different sources to get the feeling of the seasons I miss so much. And, one of the ways I go about getting my “fall-fix” is to read books that are set in the autumn. I may still be wearing short sleeves while reading my fall (Halloween and Thanksgiving) cozy mystery, but with my scented candles permeating the house, I can almost feel the chill of the night…
***To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.***
My daughter and I recently took a bus tour trip throughout the northeastern part of the US into Canada. We decided that neither of us wanted to drive so we would let the bus driver do the driving for us, while we enjoyed the beautiful views. (And, let the tour director worry about all of the details that one encounters on the trip… although, at the time we booked, we didn’t know that the tour director was going to be one of those annoying “encounters on the trip!”)
I went to my veterinarian’s office the other day to pick up some antibiotics for our dog (again!), and I was a little startled to see their Halloween decorations already up on the shelves intermixed with various types of pet shampoos and flea/tick tablets. Although I really liked their new decorations, I wondered what the heck they were doing already displayed…. in August.