AUTUMN PLACES...

Scarlett Johansson, age 12 in 1998's "The Horse Whisperer"

Ketchum, Idaho

Among so many great BLOGS, I have been enjoying two written by Blog friends of mine...Protege and Sage. Protege was born under the Tatra Mountains, to a Czech father and a Slovak mother, grew up in Sweden and lived and worked almost 10 years in North Carolina. I find that interesting as a Macedonia-Bulgarian guy. Her photography and descriptions of the simple beauty inherent in Autumn's arrival is really quite refreshing and breathtaking. She also writes beautifully.

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Sage is a very loyal blog buddy who creates some of the most heartfelt, sturdy "Carpe diem" . His writings about The Appalachian Trail spun with his extensive reflections on friendships, memories and how society in the United States has evolved throughout the 1970's to the present is quite fascinating.

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These writers (along with each of you who visit here) have a marvelous capacity to communicate nature's urgency, but also her invitation for us to participate in appreciation of her beauty. So, from the Arizona desert (which I adore during each and every sunrise with a mug of coffee) I've decided to post some random shots of places I've yet to visit, but they've always captivated my imagination during Autumn.

Montana inevitably brings memories of one of my favorite films of Robert Redford, "The Horse Whisperer". The vistas in that film are breathtaking. My cousin never lived to see the movie, but she finished the book and only heard from friends that there was quite a difference in the development of the main character in "Tom" along with the ending. One of the last books she was reading (that has nothing to do with Autumn, but still makes me smile) was Dan Goleman's "Emotional Intelligence". Curiously, this was a textbook of mine at The University of Texas at Dallas--one of three colleges I attended. I guess if you really pushed it, you could find a spot in this photo to take a break from hiking to read the book. It was very interesting. I can still picture that book opened up face down on my cousin's living room table. Horses and my cousin...inseparable. But of course, I digress.

The Montana filming locations for the movie included: Big Timber, Livingston and Belgrade. Seems like yesterday to me...

A Martha's Vineyard Sunset

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I really only met one person in my life who was actually born in Martha's Vineyard. The only remarkable thing about my few conversations with said person was that I told her on two occasions that she should smile more often. It took far more effort for that young lady than I would have imagined. But I found it didactic that she divided her time living in Cincinnati (ostensibly to spend more time with her mother who had recently divorced) and Martha's Vineyard. I don't know. Speaking for myself, I couldn't make much, if any connection between having less to smile about after visiting a number of property sites there for the sheer hell of it. It was merely one of those places you had to have a serious look at if for no other reason than to say that you were familiar with the ambiance, and that is part and parcel to satisfying some curiosity about travel to an adventurous new place. But then, one has to find true happiness within themselves, no matter where they decide to travel (or live) geographically.

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Miscellaneous: October is a nice month. On the magazine side of things, I have been preparing for a fascinating magazine interview I'll be conducting soon for publication next year. As for my manuscripts, I have canceled one book project and decided to focus on updating "No Artificial Flowers During the Mowing Season" in 2010 since I own the copyright. People have been asking me for years to collect some of my true life stories involving interesting personalities, so I'm incorporating a number of never-before-told stories into the book with some poems as interstitials (a term used more in television broadcasting than journalism). Once the dust settles, I'll be looking forward to the rounds to each of your websites too. At the risk of sounding like a television commercial or a roadside billboard along the East Coast, "What's on your plate?"

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!