You gotta love those last bits of color that hang on until the very end.

After several frosts, the deep purples and oranges stand out among the shriveled, fragile perennials. In bloom today: snapdragon, hardy zinnia, sweet pea, aster, those little weedy daisy things, calendula, mum, autumn sedum, yarrow.

We are headed to the Big Hole this weekend. It is my favorite place to be in October. We go to a *super secret* fishing hole that is referred to among the boys as the Missouri but it isn’t the Missouri at all. As a wife of a fisherman, I am sworn to secrecy. I am a little nervous to camp with a damn near eight month prego tum. We might borrow an air mattress and a dome tent. Can I still call that camping?

Camping in my family involves our tiny, bomb-proof, four-season tent with Alice who pushes us off the thermarest and barks at every stir in the leaves outside. I need sleep. It will probably snow. I’ll get to take a day trip to the Patagonia outlet. Maybe I’ll buy some booties. I haven’t bought one thing for bug.

It will be a bummer to not run. It is one of my top five favorite runs. I haven’t run in a few weeks and this time I think I really am done until the kid emerges. Alice and I will hike.