Because I'm still in love with you/ On the harvest moon

Tonight is the Harvest Moon.  We met up with our neighbors and walked to Creston Park just down the street to see it.  It was partly cloudy and we had only one really good view of it but we had fun playing with their dog, Juniper.  We really like our neighbors, Kari and Lisa.  We had a dinner with them last week and thoroughly enjoyed the company.

I'm sitting here in the dining area of our apartment watching Scott wrestle with cinnamon sticks.  What was to be an easy cookie making project has turned into a damned difficult task with quite a few substitutions.  The cinnamon must be ground and the easiest way to do this is to put it in the coffee grinder and let it work its way to dust.  Because the cinnamon sticks are difficult to break, Scott first put them in the food processor (after a discussion where I told him that doesn't really work that well because the sticks get thrown to one side) and watched them get thrown to one side.  It did break some of the sticks, though.  He put the broken sticks into the coffee grinder and filled the cinnamon container half full for me.  So thoughtful.

The smell of cinnamon is like fall.  It's spicy, woody, and sweet.  True, freshly ground cinnamon is a pretty red color and smells so much spicier than the pre-ground product you buy at the store.  I love the smell.  If I could wear it, I would.  Cinnamon and vanilla bean.  Forget the cinnamon oil and vanilla musk. The real spices are warm, dark, and exotic smells that make it easy to understand why men traveled the world seeking them.

With this, I welcome fall.  It's been a good Autumn Equinox, marking the end of an epic summer.  Here's to new beginnings!