September Vibes

Today is one of those overcast, drizzly Saturday mornings when dogs who don’t like to get their feet wet balk, then reluctantly tiptoe like entitled snobs out to greet the grass with morning tinkles as the droplets off the roof at the corner of the eave beat down like a hand drum onto the upturned blue bucket beneath. It’s the kind of day an introverted reader relishes from a too-soft channel quilted chair by a window, next to the dim lamplight of gray morning, the kind of day those Cat in the Hat kids could only endure until the cat showed up with his two Things. But no cat with surprises is needed here, not today in all the golden silence of a rainy morning while the coffee is hot and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan and Whistler by Ann Patchett await and the dogs’ feet have dried enough to curl up in the chair in a room recently decorated to welcome autumn with cozy throws, a menagerie of mums, and a blend of buttery pumpkin potpourri emanating from the table, blending with the scent of coffee poured from the piping glass pot into a shiny ceramic mug, the clinking of the stirring of a spoon heralding the morning in the same way church chimes of Rockport, Massachusetts echo all through the town to remind us of our daily blessings. Pour a cup and come read with me.