My Favorite Season is Autumn

byroxydog1312

1.4K followers

5 years ago

Winter is cold and crisp, but lasts too long. Spring here in the Colorado Rockies is more like winter. Summer is hot, Enter your own correction..., and tiresome. This is why my favorite season is Autumn.

Autumns Past

I used to love the beginning of the school year, and with it, the beginning of Marching Band and Football. Our band went to all the competitions and we usually won all the prizes. It was so fun to cozy up to the guys in the band on cold football nights. There were bonfires and outdoor activities and Homecoming. I really had fun every Fall in high school.

Now, I'm no longer in school, obviously, but I still love the coming of fall and the changing of the seasons. I love looking out over my favorite Colorado vistas that I see along my commute, and watching the daily changes taking place. Some trees turn yellow right away, but some stay green for quite a while. I love keeping track of them.

Because I'm Not Crazy About Summer

I hate summer. I hate being hot. I hate mosquitoes. I hate forest fires. I hate watering and mowing grass. I am in all my glory when that first frost hits at the beginning of September, Mosquitoes are dead. I can wind up that garden hose and store it. I can breathe again in the cool crisp air. I can start seeing the colors change and look forward to that first snow fall.

The Anticipation

When you see the kids going back to school, and the trees changing, and the days getting shorter, and the weather getting colder, you know that the best time of year is soon to come. Fall means the Holidays are coming. Halloween, with its straw bales, pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns, hay rides and corn mazes. Thanksgiving turkey with all the trimmings, and the accompanying football games and parades and family visits. Then the Christmas season comes upon us with all the planning and activities that come with it. All the holiday planning and celebration centers around friends and family, and anticipating time with them is the best of all.

I anticipate the first snow fall. I love snow, up until Christmas. I'm not crazy about driving in it, but as kids we loved playing in the snow and ice-skating. Earlier in my adult life, I was an avid skier, and later a crazy snowmobiler. The anticipation of snow was something we lived for. We used to say, "Ready for snowmobiling? Heck ya, first heavy frost and We.Are.There!"

And since I've been working at the paving company, I have had winter off. I work up until Thanksgiving, then I am off until late April. Looking forward to that 4-5 months off is something that starts just after Labor Day. I love planning my time off, and get more excited as Fall wears on.

The Five Senses of Autumn

Sight: Where I live in Colorado, the aspens turn an absolutely blinding color of gold. When that color (think school bus yellow, only 20 times brighter) is set against the deep blue sky, it's so beautiful that it dazzles the senses. There are so many shades of that yellow, from light and sunny pastel to deep gold to rusty copper to ripe peach. Every corner you turn brings an even more colorful vista and a delight for the eye. But it's not only the trees. Every bush and cat tail and hay field and berm is a golden background for the trees. The leaves of the aspen are attached to the trees in such a way, that when the breeze goes through, the trees shimmer, or "quake" as it's termed. It's an amazing sight.

Sound: The wind rushing in and scattering the fallen leaves causes a sound like rain pattering on the pavement. The crackle of the fire, taking the chill off the evening frost. The shouting and laughter of the children as they run from house to house Trick-or-Treating. The crispy sound of fallen leaves as you wade through great piles of them. The geese honking overhead as they fly south.

mell: Fallen leaves have a smell all their own. It's a woodsy aroma, like an earthy perfume. When I was a kid, I lived back east, and we would burn the fallen leaves in great big piles. There is nothing else in this world that smells like burning leaves. It smells like Autumn. We don't burn leaves here in Colorado, but the memory of that smell has never left me. The neighbors start using their wood stoves and you can smell wood smoke in the air. And I like the smell of the cooking in the fall.

Touch: The cool crisp air. The warm fuzzy sweaters and socks that come out of their summer storage and become part of the wardrobe again. This is when the warmth of the house after a long work day, and the heat of a hot shower, feel good again. And there's the warm blankets that come out for the bed and the couch on movie binge nights.

Taste: I can't say enough about the food that I cook in the fall. I make pies for Thanksgiving ahead and freeze them, So on all the weekends of October, you will find me baking apple and pumpkin pies. Of course there is always a "test' pie to be eaten. Fresh apple pie is THE BEST. Along with fresh, crisp, juicy applies, just picked from the cool outdoors, from my very own apple tree.

The Food

I love to cook and eat. I keep running menu ideas and love trying new dishes. In Autumn, I switch from easy hot weather meals to the hot, rib-sticking comfort foods of winter. Stews and soups with crusty bread and herb butter are my favorites. Casseroles and crock pot meals round out our menu on work days, and weekends are for pot roasts, meat loaf, and roasted fowl. Nothing gives us more comfort than roasted pork with mashed sweet potatoes and harvest stuffing with wild rice, apples, cranberries, and pecans. One slice of that "test" pumpkin pie rounds out our typical Sunday dinner. Add in pumpkin flavored "everything" (lattes, muffins, quick breads, pancakes, waffles, cookies, desserts, etc.) and you have an Autumn menu sure to please.

Conclustion

So I challenge you to get out and enjoy Autumn. Take in all the sights, sounds, and smells of the season and take time to sit back and enjoy the anticipation of what's to come. Everything I love about life can be experienced in Autumn: The beauty of nature, the love of family and friends, the anticipation of change, and the best that life can bring us. Take time to enjoy it for yourself.