From Adelia's Desk - Autumnal Reflections

Hello and welcome to Adelia Jezek's corner of the Heartleaf blog!

Whew! It’s October already? Time to settle on Halloween costumes — will I be a witch (again)? will everyone else be dragons or dinosaurs? — and decorate my office with all the candles and pumpkins and acorns in celebration of the season.

This year has seemed to just zip on by and now here we are with the weather turning nippy and brisk (here in the northern hemisphere at least) and I’m delighting in everything cozy and autumnal. Here in the Great Lakes region, the leaves are all turning glorious shades of red and gold and orange and the days are sunny and crisp — at least enough to warrant a light sweater in the mornings and longing looks at the flannels in my closet! This time of year always inspires me to want to curl up with hot tea or cider, a freshly baked treat, and a new notebook. Since finishing An Enchantment of Starlight, my brain has been simply buzzing with ideas for the new book I’m writing and I cannot wait to share hints and teasers for that as I finish working on it!

When I’m not writing, I’ve been keeping myself busy in the kitchen trying out new recipes to please the discerning and ever-inscrutable palates of the rest of the Jezek crew. This weekend, it was spiced muffins which were all eaten before I could make frosting for them, and I have plans for a maple pumpkin cheesecake sometime later this week. (Might I have given my deep, abiding love for cheesecake to a certain character because it made him more relatable to me? Maybe. But then, who doesn’t love cheesecake?)

If I manage to get out of the office and the kitchen, its usually to go on a long stroll through the accumulating leaves in my backyard or along the walking paths near my home. Maybe soon, I’ll manage to round up the whole family to go to an orchard for an afternoon of apple-picking before the weather turns cold and Daylight Savings steals all our evening light away. I am hoping to find some time this month to watch all of Pushing Daisies and Anne of Green Gables again. Will this be the year I finally watch Practical Magic with my partner? Or will our decade-long tradition of forgetting until autumn is over hold strong?

At least for now though, October is looking bright and beautiful and I cannot wait to see what she has in store for me! I’ll have plenty of cool autumn days — and frosty nights — to look forward to as I settle into the cozy season of inspiration and comfort. I love getting to snuggle up with a mug of spiced apple cider as I write or edit (or get distracted by pretty cottagecore pictures on Insta!) or read about cloud formations and air currents, or historical bookbinding techniques and art heists. Is it procrastination or research? Or… could it be both? I guess you’ll have to wait and find out!

I hope that your October is off to a wonderful start and that you get to enjoy some of the best parts of autumn — whether that’s taking a walk through a local park or forest, indulging in a Pumpkin or Chai Spice Latte or a local apple cider, or curling up with a good book and a comfy blanket!

Until next time,

Adelia