October arrives the way Irina described it.
Not dramatically, the specific, gradual shift of a season that has been preparing for weeks finally committing to itself. The trees on the eastern approach change first the ones closest to the compound, the ones I have looked at from the south wall for fifteen years in every season. They change from green to the particular amber gold of early October and then, over days, deeper the specific, burning quality of things that are at the end of one thing and have not yet committed to the next.
The compound changes too.
Not structurally the east wing is rebuilt and the phase two meeting room is in its fourth week of construction and the south facing window is framed and waiting for glass. The change is in the quality of the mornings. The air is diff
