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Autumn is my favorite season. I love that the days are warm from the sun but the nights start to turn crisp and cool. I love that the trees, typically, become a canvas of color, reminding me that I am lucky enough to live in such a beautiful place. I love that gardens burst over with vegetables and flowers that are hearty, lasting far longer than the delicate Springtime fruits and buds. I love when the corn field is finally ready for harvest and the tractor hums along, outside my still open window, working from morning until after dark. I love to carve pumpkins and cook pumpkin seeds even though I get hardly a Trick-or Treater. I love to put big pots of mums on my porch step, often trying to predict which color mums will match the foliage around my house. I love the smell of my homemade applesauce simmering patiently on the stove. I love anticipating the holidays and getting a jump on my shopping. I love Fall nail polish colors, and I especially love (or at least when my girls were young), that school starts again!
Autumn in New England is a season of hard work and preparation. Although we are not the pioneers of the past, stocking our root cellars and fastening our window shutters in anticipation of winter’s long and hard freeze, we still make sure that we have our heating source stocked and serviced and a fair amount of food in the freezer, just in case. Blankets and bedspreads are freshened and sweaters come back to the forefront in our closets. Boots are checked for wear and tear and children are outfitted with winter gear that fits their growing frame. Gardens, once emptied, are made bare and clean for a long rest and jams and jellies are canned and tucked neatly away in the pantry for use on warm toasted breads on chilly mornings.
For me, Fall represents not only a true physical shift in the surrounding nature, but also in me. My spirit, slightly more care free and imaginative in the summer, becomes, like the root vegetables in my garden, heartier. I take stock of the work that has yet to be accomplished during the year, and I start to buckle down. I make more lists and, despite it getting darker earlier, I seem to stay up later. I make sure that I touch base with friends I haven’t seen in a while and plan a get-together.
I, also, like the busy chipmunks around me, eat more, opting to say yes to dessert or an appetizer or an extra glass of wine…or all of the above. I especially make sure, that when the leaves start to turn, my TV recording list is updated and ready to go in order not to miss any of the premiers of the new TV season…
Or maybe, Fall is just my favorite season simply because I get to use one of my most favorite words…
Leaf Peepers! Leaf Peepers!
Kathy Naumann, possessor of NATURALLY curly hair and the understanding that you can’t control everything!
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