It's Still Life

I. Still Rooted

Thankful that the storms left no real damage behind. The trees held their footing, the roof held its nerve, and once the clouds moved on, the solar panels quietly went back to work.

II. Nature Tidies Up

Thankful that the wind gathered all the fallen leaves into neat little piles in the corners of the garden. Autumn did its own housekeeping.

III. Storm Chasers

Another two storms blew through, albeit quickly, And me, I’m standing on the pier taking photographs. There are safer ways to admire the weather, but apparently none quite as satisfying.

IV. The Spark Is Still Ours

Thankful to the person who told me, “Without creativity, AI is just a tool.” Exactly. The machine may offer the brush, the notes, the image, the scaffold, but the spark still has to come from somewhere human.

V. Autumn Relocation

The trees are nearly bare now, and the storms kindly relocated most of the fallen leaves across the road into the neighbour’s garden. Nature has its own ideas about boundary lines.

VI. Little Treasures

Thankful for a long walk that began in sunshine and ended with the sky pouring rain over me. Right weather; wrong clothes. Still, I came home carrying leaves, acorns, and the sort of little treasures that make getting soaked feel worth it.

VII. One Story Too Many

Thankful for an extra, third Six Sentence Story this week. I won’t link it up because three from one person feels a little greedy, but this one insisted on being written: a small return to my day at la bibliothèque, l’Université de Montpellier. Sometimes a story does not wait to be invited.

VIII. Winter Stores

Thankful for homegrown onions enough to see us through the winter. Fresh from the garden, not dried and tired from a shelf somewhere. The flavour is incomparable, and there is something deeply satisfying about eating from a season you helped grow.

IX. Rebranded Burgers

Thankful for the new pop-up burger van down by the railway station, glowing away at dusk and doing brisk trade. It used to be called Snoopy Burgers, until some lawyers objected to the name, so now it is called something else entirely.

X. Notice

Thankful for the beauty of nature. How can we not notice it, and be thankful that the world keeps offering itself to us?