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Some remarks on the season:

-Here in northern California, there's a kind of dry, pale-green moss that grows on trees. The way it hangs off tree branches reminds me of spooky animated possessed trees, like the ones in Beauty and the Beast. I don't know the official name, but I call it "shroud moss."

-Two nights ago I watched The Others. Holy cow. Now, I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to scary movies, I am the biggest fraidy-cat of them all. But seriously, The Others was scary. Not scary in a cheap, ooh-look-a-ghost-jumped-out kind of way either; scary in a genuine, atmospheric, well-written kind of way.

-Hot apple cider stirred with a cinnamon stick is the quintessential* autumn beverage.

*Did you know that the adjective "quintessential" derives from the alchemical term "quintessence"?

• trees
• flora
• outdoors
• woods
• forest
• cool
• stuff