A day in downtown St. Johns, and the first day of the month of Halloween.

This afternoon, Dee and I walked to downtown St. Johns. The sun was slanted, yellow gold through the cloud cover, and a pair of cats greeted us along the way. We went to Starbucks, where I had a pumpkin latte as spicy and smooth as the best and first of the year. We did a window-shopping tour of the local boutiques—one had metal leaves and burlap trick-or-treating bags in the window, one is like a real-life Etsy and I wish I could show it to you—and bought a book at the local bookstore, which was preparing for a new window display filled with blown glass pumpkins. We went to a favorite local restaurant, where I had a rich savory pizza topped with spinach, roasted garlic, and handfuls of bleu cheese. For dessert, we split a pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust, sour cream icing, and caramel topping—it was so spicy, so rich with golden pumpkin, and you wish you could have had some. We walked back through mild rain, not too long before dusk. At the house we changed into warm dry clothes and watched Nightmare Before Christmas to inaugurate the month of Halloween.


(As always, page views for this picture have rocketed since the season began.)
This is my city. This is my season. It is all so beautiful.