Fall is my favorite season. It’s the favorite of many of my friends as well. I started thinking about why that may be. Is it because the days are filled with bright blue skies, crisp air, the smell of burning leaves? Maybe it’s because we can finally breathe deep after the long, humid days of summer. I know that down here, when I have to wear scuba gear to walk to the mailbox, no humidity is a welcome change. I get very, very VERY homesick every year beginning in September.  I think about my days growing up in the Midwest, when fall meant wearing jeans and loafers, comfy cable knit sweaters, and putting away my white shoes. In those days no one wore white after Labor Day. And even though I know that rule has changed, I still refrain from wearing white shoes in the winter. Some habits die hard. You’ll see me in my trademark Keds, but not the white ones. Nope. But red? and Blue? Oh, yeah.

Fall means chili, and potato soup, warm corn bread with ham and beans. It’s hot chocolate with marshmallows, fire pits and toasted marshmallows. It’s raking leaves into big piles and then jumping in them and crawling out of the pile with crushed leaves down the back of your neck, inside your collar and in your shoes. It’s the warmth of the fireplace and the comfort of snuggling under a warm blanket. It’s reading a good book by that same fire, or watching movies with loved ones long after we should be asleep.

Fall is long drives to see the splendor of the turning leaves, hiking along forgotten paths. Collecting acorns and seedpods and pretty maple leaves. It’s the feeling of life slowing. Turning inward, preparing for winter. Fall is comfort.

Fall here in Florida is a bit different. We do get to wear jeans on some days, but mostly we’re still in our shorts and flip flops well into November. I have a fireplace that gets used whenever the weather drops to the 60’s. Hey! When it’s 195° in the shade (slight exaggeration, slight!) with humidity to match for 9 months of the year, 60° is COLD. (Don’t judge.) I don’t care. It’s Fall y’all! I decorate with fall themed things just like my northern friends. I collect leaves on trips “up north”, and I once brought back 5 pounds of Indiana acorns to use. I still have them. We have tiny, piddly ones that drop all year. You Northeners  get the good ones. So not fair. But as long as I can bring a bit of home back with me, all is good. I’m sharing a few photos of some of my fall decor this year. In my rush to get a Christmas themed post up for ya, I neglected fall. Shame on me.  I remembered this afternoon however, when the light was pouring into the dining room. I love Fall, yes, I do.

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