The North Cascades chapter has closed. My field season there has ended. Henry and I have transferred ourselves back to our home in Cle Elum. His transition seems to be going smoothly. After five months of exploring, hunting, lounging and hanging out with new friends in Twisp, he has re-established himself as top cat in his local territory.

On the other hand, I am still unpacking, literally and metaphorically. I’ve lost track of how many times I have hauled boxes back and forth to the truck this year. Life has been lived without the full complement of possessions–minimal but comfortable. How much does one person really need? But now I find myself in a larger space (Oh my word, a full-size fridge! A washing machine that doesn’t take coins! An established garden free of pesky deer!). It’s more or less the same as I left it in spite of having been lived in by tenants. It still feels like my place. Slowly, I settle back in.

I’m very tired. It was an intense season filled with work and new experiences, not all of them positive and pleasant. Due to the demands of the job, I was not able to keep work balanced with the rest of my life, as regular readers will have noticed from the sparse blog posts. As autumn progresses, I am able to slow down. I sleep long and deeply, waiting to see when the dark circles under my eyes will fade. I putter about–the best gift for an introvert is unstructured time. Rain splatters the colorful leaves in the garden, wind pulls them from their twigs, and summer swirls away.

I don’t know what the next chapter will be. After I rest some more, I will begin to sketch it out and see what wants to be written.