Umbriel watches signs of fall

It's already 15th of September, and trees have started changing color, but it has been rainy, and there have not been many opportunities to go out. There was a long enough break in the rain, however, so that Umbriel could go to the balcony to look at the maple on our parking lot.


Umbriel: I can see a bit of sunshine between the clouds!


Umbriel: The maple is turning very pretty, isn't it?

First Day of Fall

It's the first of September, and therefore officially the first day of fall. Niks and Naks wanted to go out to the forest again to see how it looks like now.


Niks: This is a real troll forest!

Naks: Yes! Just look at all these boulders. A huge troll has carted them here...

Niks: Or maybe it was the ice age...


Niks: Look! Another troll castle!


Niks: What a wonderful fly agaric!

Naks: We'll eat this for sure! What a treat!


Niks: Is this an ant hill?

Naks: No, it's just a heap of spruce needles on a boulder.

Niks: What a pity. I was looking for ants for dessert.


Naks: But there is a delicious looking toadstool here.

Niks: Yes! It is a mustarousku! We'll eat it for dessert.


Niks: Lovely soft moss. I think I'll take a nap after all that eating.

Naks: Me too, eating makes one sleepy.


Niks: Look! One more toadstool.

Naks: This is not a fly agaric...

Niks: We'll eat it anyway... Mmmmmm... it smells good.


Naks: Most flowers have gone to seed already.

Niks: So if you want to find color in the forest...

Naks: You have to look for toadstools...

Niks: Or leaves that have turned red and gold.

Naks: This blueberry is turning nicely!

Legolas and Umbriel get philosophical

Legolas: It's been rather quiet around here lately.

Umbriel: Yes, our person has been reading a lot lately, first Lord Of the Rings, then Harry Potter and then miscellaneous science fiction. The last one was Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" It was rather scary.

Legolas: Maybe you are too young for it...

Umbriel: No, it was scary because it was written in the thirties, and so much of it seems like today's world.


Legolas: Yes, it said: "One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them." The people in the book were conditioned to believe they must consume stuff all the time, occupy their time with idle amusement, and never just be quiet alone and think. And all the commercials today do exactly the same thing, they try to condition us exactly the same way as people were conditioned in Huxley's book.

Umbriel: But if you know that it is only conditioning, you can choose not to believe it. The same goes with everything you are told to believe.

Legolas: Exactly. We still have freedom to choose. I have understood why I was given the choice between coming here and going to Elf Reform School. Those that end up in the reform school have made too many bad choices. But I can still try to make my own future, to become something instead of just wasting my time in idle amusement. If one does not progress, one regresses.

Umbriel: That sounds very wise.

Legolas: I'm still not interested in technology or how things work and I do not want to know everything. But I may learn to make music or write or paint something.


Umbriel: That sounds good. This world needs arts, too, not just science and knowledge.