How do I love fall? Let me count the ways!
My favorite things about my favorite season:
1.The fact that darkness now creeps in around 7:30 p.m. and I no longer have to persuade my kids to go to bed when it’s still bright daylight outside. (“But, Mom, the sun is still out!” “That glowing orb in the sky? That’s the moon, dear.”)
2. Picking, then eating, local apples. As much as I love a perfect peach exploding with summer sunshine, there is something beautiful about the more modest apple. I’m grateful for its durability and the fact that it may be the one fruit all three of my kids will eat without complaint.
3. The crisp thwack! of the down comforter as I spread it over our bed each morning. One of my favorite episodes of Sex and the City – the last episode of the fourth season when Miranda has her baby and Big announces he’s moving to Napa – begins with fall arriving in New York and Carrie taking her heavy blanket out for the first time. It’s a simple, but lovely ritual that I imagine all of us who live in temperate climates share.
4. Making soup and bread on Sunday afternoons, with the soundtrack of the kids playing and Neil Young crooning on Harvest Moon in the background. Gale wrote recently about family traditions – the ones we consciously create and the ones that spring up organically. Sunday soup is one of those rituals that we backed our way into and has stuck with us through pregnancies and infancies. (My favorites are vegetarian chili and roasted onion soup; Husband favors potato corn chowder.)
5. Letting my toes meet the tile floor in the bathroom just long enough to taste its slippery coolness before retreating into a pair of ancient fuzzy socks.
6. Setting out for a run in the 40 degree chill, looking either foolish or optimistic in my shorts, t-shirt, and gloves, then warming up with the work and the sun to the perfect temperature. (Oh, how happy am I that the summer’s oppressive humidity has finally blown away!)
7. The smell of wood smoke from a neighbor’s chimney bringing me back to the last apartment Husband and I shared before we left Connecticut and moved out here and the tiny crackling fires I would curl up and read in front of on fall evenings after teaching.
8. Sweaters, scarves, tweedy jackets. Am I the only one who feels both cozier and more pulled together in layers?
9. Taking long walks with my kids and none of wanting to go inside because Its’s just too hot or It’s just too cold. This is one time of the year when the Midwest is Just right.
10. Last, most obvious, but not least: the way the grass gets green again just as the leaves explode into gold, crimson, pumpkin, and plum.
What are your favorite things about fall?
I’m linking up today with:
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Fall is my favorite season, too, Kristen. I love the orange color of pumpkins. I like being able to wear sweatshirts and jeans (but that’s partially because I don’t have to shave my legs all the stinkin’ time). I cannot stand to be hot, so the fall temperatures bring welcome relief. And, I love hearing the crunch of the leaves on the sidewalk as I walk my daughter to school.
Happy Fall!
Oh me too, I just can’t bear being hot. This summer is one I am very glad to have behind me!
Then again, I’m not so crazy about being cold either… ;)
Only in the past five years have I lived somewhere that has 4 seasons (in the deep deep south, there is hot and not-so-hot). I am simply enchanted with the transitional seasons—spring and fall. Fall—there is just something in the air…I can’t even explain it. Calming and soothing after the extreme brightness, heat, and humidity of summer. Its got a hint of melancholy in it, though, the feeling of winter on the way. Something that makes me crave warm blankets, scarves, and drinks. And easier bedtimes (and later wake times) for the kids…always good :)
Brrr! I’m a summer girl all the way…you just made me cold with this post (I keep my down comforter on the bed all summer long…on hot nights, it ends up doubled on top of me when my husband gets hot and throws it off!). I like the sound of soup & bread Sunday. I’m trying to motivate myself to get excited about cooking. Sunday soup could do it. I do like the autumn leaves, but I don’t like that the whole thing is a prelude to a very long, dark, cold winter.
Do you know the Moosewood cookbooks? Great soup recipes!
I grew up in Central Illinois — fall was my favorite season there too. There’s something magical about the crispness that steals into the air, signifying the end of those oppressively humid summer days (which always cut spring short on the other end, so I never could enjoy that more temperate season either).
Soup is a staple where I live now too, where it’s cool 10 months of the year but not really cold :). You’ve reminded me that I need to start looking for butternut squash again!
Do you live near a Trader Joe’s? I went through a butternut squash soup phase and found it very helpful to use the peeled and diced squash from their produce section. Saved some time and wrist strength! :)
We do have a Trader Joe’s here! I had no idea they had peeled and diced squash. That could come in super handy when we have less cooking time available. I wonder how well butternut soup freezes (we love it enough that there are no leftovers within a day or two of cooking)? We’re starting to plan what to have ready for the first months after the baby arrives.
The Trader Joe’s around here is notorious for having different things available every time we visit, but I hope the ready-to-go squash is still available by you!
I haven’t ever frozen butternut squash soup, but I have frozen pureed cooked butternut squash as baby food so my guess is that it would work. :)
I am looking forward to eating apples, cooking with apples, and enjoying their colorful skins just like the color of leaves. Ironic, isn’t it? I enjoyed your post.
Welcome to Motherese, Carol! Thanks so much for visiting. And I’m with you on the apples 100%. We have a bowlful of all different colored ones from our local orchard on the counter right now.
There is a smell in the air that is fall. Of course, I’m still about two months out from that, but the crisp fresh (no longer scorched) air mixed with the sightly musty leaves and wood smoke is too too glorious.
Thick blankets? oh, I just appreciate the desire to have a blanket. And a silent AC unit. Some day…
I love your number 1. My son isn’t convinced as easily during the summer as he is during the winter. He can tell time, but there’s just something about the body that makes you want to stay up later.
Thanks for stopping by 100lbcountdown.com ~April
Hi April! Thanks so much for visiting Motherese!
I adore the hot weather, I will confess… But when Autumn rolls around it pokes memories of a new school year, sharpened pencils, a new outfit… excitement! I still feel that way, and wish I lived in a university town (which I once took utterly for granted… Harvard was the “local” school for taking a course).
Even far from that environment, the first nip in the air is delicious. And while I make soups year round, they’re hardier as the weather cools off, and yes… those sweaters and scarves make you want to hunker down, curl up with a book, hold a child on your lap and read, or your loved one’s hand in your own – in the quiet.
I agree with every single one of the things you said, except for the running ;)
Autumn is just scrumptious.
Am I remembering correctly that you have a thing for pumpkin lattes? I seem to recall a post from way back in the day when you said something about being on the lookout for Starbucks to change their seasonal cups.
Then again, I am losing my mind so I could be making this up completely. :)
I love summer and being out in the ocean..but autumn is lovely and your list makes it sound irresistible. :)
Hip Hip Hooray for Fall!! Although each season has its merits, autumn sparkles and crackles in my belly, springs my steps and pinks my cheeks. I, like you, feel so at home in fall. It is a glorious precursor to my other favorite season, WINTER.
A couple of remarks:
1. Oh yes running in the cold. (When I lived in Chicago, I’d run outside in January. Crazy? Sure. But oh-how-I-loved it.)
2. The smell of other’s fires is like an elixir for me. Makes me giddy.
So good to read your words.
xo
Don’t let the Fall colors fool you! Don’t you know what comes after Fall? ;-)
Fall is not my pick, especially since September and October often are the hottest months in San Diego and I can’t stand it. We’re supposed to have another 100-degree heatwave this weekend, lovely. And everything in nature dies little by little, it’s depressing, including the lack of sunlight. San Diego probably is the best place to enjoy winter and summer is too stinking hot, although I LOVE the summer fruit. My favorite season is Spring, when everything in nature gets rebirthed. Lots of colors, blooms, new animal babies. And things are still green before they turn yellow and brown with the summer sun. Spring, Spring, Spring! Oh wait, I have 6 months to go. :-(
This post reminds me of the book 10,000 Things To Be Happy About. The book was a high school graduation gift that I continue to treasure because of the way she describes the things in her list.
“Letting my toes meet the tile floor in the bathroom just long enough to taste its slippery coolness before retreating into a pair of ancient fuzzy socks.” You could have just said ‘slippers’, but instead you took us into a moment of your life so we could truly appreciate the moment you slip your feet into them.
Living in Saudi it isn’t going to happen. Thanks for reminding of all the fabulous bits.
I can’t say that I particularly like Fall. Summer is my time. Given the choice I will wear a t-shirt and shorts all year round.
But I suppose that I do kind of enjoy grabbing cider when it is chilly here (around 65 degrees or so) and I like picking out pumpkins with my kids.
Is there anything better than Thanksgiving or Halloween?
I’m partial to Arbor Day, but I take your point. ;)
lol my kids are too old for me to convince them to go to bed early. I love the longer sunny days. I love making soups and the scent of wood burning from the neighbors is always welcome!
Welcome to Motherese, Mimi! And thanks for reminding me that the days of having my kids in bed by 7:30 are numbered. :)
I already love Fall. But if I didn’t, the descriptions in this post would do it. :-)
Wow – I love your list! I’m not a fan of apples, but soup? Absolutely. I love that I can bake more and the smell that permeates the house makes it feel more like a home.
I just started running (as in, for the first time), and I can definitely appreciate the crisp in the air because I would just melt in the stifling summer heat. When we’re running and the leaves fall around us on the sidewalk from the canopy of trees on the street, it just makes me feel really great to be alive. There’s just something so breathtakingly beautiful about that.
In the desert it is rare to experience a change in seasons. There are subtle hints of fall here – 100 degree days are now 90 degree days, there is a slight chill in the early morning during my run, and I finally see children playing on the street during the evening. But one thing never changes about living here – flip-flops year round!