Harvest Moon

Kate and I went for a walk this afternoon and picked these flowers (and other things). Fall is here! Kate also wanted some blackberries, which we had more trouble with, since there are barely any edible ones left on the bushes, but I managed to find a few. It was rather difficult to explain to Kate, who could see that there were clearly berries there, but couldn't understand why her mom wouldn't get them for her.

Doug started back to work yesterday. He's teaching four classes this quarter, at two different schools. His schedule cuts it a bit close--he's only got half an hour between classes to get from here to Auburn, which could be a problem if traffic is bad. It's going to be a busy quarter. We're adjusting to the new schedule.

Today is the Asian mid-autumn festival, harvest moon festival, called Chuseok (추석) in Korea. It's the 15th day of the 30-day lunar month, and falls on the full moon. I've been told that it's the biggest holiday in Korea, but I don't really have a good sense of it because I was only in Korea for one Chuseok, and nobody invited us over. I was serving as a missionary in KwangJu with Sister Shelly Jeppson from Utah, and had been in the country for about five months. We went over to the elders' house and had a picnic outside their apartment (I had made apple pie, which I remember they were pretty excited about). Other people in the apartment building kept coming out onto their balconies to look at us. ("Check out the foreigners! What are they doing?") So that's my Chuseok memory. I was reflecting recently how, through some cruel twist of fate, I spent four summers in Korea and only one fall. It's just not fair. (Well, when Doug and I went over to teach English six weeks after we got married, we arrived in late October, so I guess we did catch the tail end of that fall.) Autumn in Korea is such a gorgeous time of year, all the more wonderful because it follows a miserably hot and muggy summer. If you ask any Korean what their favorite season is, they will most likely say fall. If we get to go back to Korea again I hope we can go in the fall. Or spring. Spring is quite beautiful, too. Or maybe we can go in the spring and then again in the fall, and skip summer this time. Sounds like a plan.

I've been working on a Korean-related digi kit, which I hope to have done within the next few days, but it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and I haven't been able to work on much else. We went to the fair on Friday, but I don't know when I'll get around to posting pictures.

My brother Peter and his wife Karen just found out they are having a girl! Big fluffy pink wahooos!