The best time of the year
Fall is here, as evidenced by my 42% dead rose bush bursting forth with seven new blooms, all, “No, no, it’s still summer. Look! NRRRRRRGH. See? New roses!” I can see my breath in the mornings when I let Shorty out, as I send countless puffs toward the pinkish-purple striated skyline. The cats are acting like insane torpedoes, launching themselves repeatedly onto our headboard to sniff at the cracked-open windows before sprinting clumsily and painfully over our sleeping bodies to thunder across the hardwood floors. (Shorty snoring in the next room is no longer a deterrent.)
The summer here has been fantastic in every way, filled with fun trips and great weather. But with the chill in the air, I feel a need to purge and clean, to clear my house and my mind. I want to donate all the clothing I didn’t wear this summer; low-cut tops inappropriate for work and never worn elsewhere; redundant pairs of flip flops; shorts that are too big but look terrible when worn with a belt. I want to clean out my files; folders that are bursting with useless forms and things I thought I should keep but really didn’t need to. I want to revise our house to-do list; we still haven’t gotten around to painting our window trim or the downstairs bedroom.
Our end-of-the-season camping trip has me practically bursting at the seams. I’ve been looking forward to it SO much, mainly for the mental benefits. The weather appears it will behave, and the evenings promise the lure of a giant campfire crackling in the hopefully-free-of-bugs darkness. I love how camping is so simplistic, just the bare materials you need to survive: food, shelter, water, nature, entertainment. I love that I can talk with Jason, play cards or cribbage, listen to the radio, read, or just sit and watch the stars or the campfire without ever once being bored. My head feels clearest when I’m camping. Somehow, I think I’ve missed my calling as a nature hermit.
I’ve also started scrapbooking again, an activity I’ve somehow always associated with cozy winter nights, and my latest knitting project, the half-finished Practice Sweater™ looks more and more inviting, rather than a summer-time anachronism.
I’m looking forward to crisp apples, pumpkins, TV shows starting up again, celebrating our one-year wedding anniversary, buying tiny gourds to use as decorations, wearing a new sweater for the first time, making vats of chili, pocketing acorns and perfectly formed leaves, and smelling a bonfire in the breeze. And football.
I’m not however, looking forward to raking leaves. That sucks. (And that whole winter business, too.)
What’s your favorite thing about fall?
Oh, man. This post is perfect. Yay, fall! Fall is short around here, as is spring. So, any day that resembles a fall day is an AWESOME day.
The smell in the air throughout the fall is probably my favorite part of the season. It is earthy.
I love that it is time to get cozy again, to snuggle and to bake, but not yet time to do battle with the 40-mile-per-hours winds, snowdrifts in the drive and freezing pipes.
Comment by Artemisia — September 10, 2008 @ 12:36 pm
favorite things about fall:
-that crisp smell in the air, especially in the mornings
-fall clothing. yay layering!
-apple crumbles
-my birthday!
-turning leaves
i just hate that it means WINTER is coming. sigh.
Comment by Alice — September 10, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
I love the cold mornings/evenings but warm days. And I love that I can run without dying of heat exhaustion. And I love the changing colors. And that I can wear sweaters every day without people looking at me like I’m insane. And that my office turns off the freaking A/C and I don’t freeze everyday. I love fall.
Comment by Sarah — September 10, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
Halloween
The feeling the first time you put on a sweatshirt.
The smell the first time you turn on the heater in the car.
How the air smells crisp
Halloween
Anniversary (on Halloween)
Pumpkins!
Comment by Shelly — September 10, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
The air. And the sweaters. And the feeling of new beginnings. And this year, our wedding.
Comment by Jess — September 10, 2008 @ 3:02 pm
Baked goods with cinnamon and ginger
Warm sweaters
Cool breeze through the window
I love fall. I just wish the good stuff of fall lasted longer.
Comment by LoriD — September 10, 2008 @ 3:04 pm
I don’t know. It’s hard to think about autumn when we’re still in full blown 95 degrees summer mode here…
Comment by Gretchen — September 10, 2008 @ 4:43 pm
October
My Birthday
Halloween
Bonfires
Roasting marshmellows
Dude, just EVERYTHING!
Awesome post, as usual!
Comment by Shelly — September 11, 2008 @ 10:12 am
Ah, fall. We have it for about three days. Then we have about 3 more days of “winter”, then we’re back to summer heat again. I envy you folks that actually have seasons.
Comment by nonsoccermom — September 11, 2008 @ 10:45 am
Ah crisp apples AND Apple Crisp, pumpkins, TV shows starting up again, putting up tacky decorations for all of the up coming holidays, wearing turtle necks for the first time, making yummy crock pots and sweet potato dishes that I LOVE, the smell in the air of crisp fall day, hiking in the woods with the kids checking out leaves and feeling so refreshed and excited even though I likely will have only slept a few hours the night before, FOOTBALL, and going on a hay ride (that will make my eyes & ears itch for hours after) out to the pumpkin patch with the kids. Okay CANDY CORN.
Comment by Christina — September 11, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
My favorite thing is being able to wear sweaters and the way the air smells when it’s cold. Although, here in south MS, we have summer and January!
Hey…no mention of how Shorty did on the camping trip. Was it last weekend or coming up?
Comment by Julie — September 11, 2008 @ 3:06 pm
I like fall weather and the pumpkins and getting to wear lightweight sweaters, but I can’t enjoy fall very much, because it reminds me that WINTER is coming, and that is the worst season ever.
Comment by Penny — September 14, 2008 @ 2:26 pm
I live in Phoenix, AZ, so my favorite thing about fall is the heat breaking. Once the days are no longer in the triple digits I am a happy girl.
Comment by Sara — September 17, 2008 @ 3:14 pm