Random thoughts... snippets of life in rural New England
Published on October 18, 2005 By HC1240 In Misc
I absolutely LOVE living in New England. I don't care for the harshness of the winters here, or the blazing heat and humidity of summer... but Autumn is that wonderful in-between time that makes it all worthwhile. We don't really have Spring here, we just have "mud season." New England is in its glory in the Fall, though.

When I was younger, this was my favorite season because it was a time for gathering with family that I didn't see often at other times of the year. Over the years, it has become so much more than that. I love the crispness to the air... the scent of woodsmoke wafting on the breeze... the crunch of the leaves beneath my feet... the brilliant splashes of color against the backdrop of Mt. Washington and a clear blue sky. I even enjoy the aroma of the slowly decomposing vegetation. There's just something about this time of year that inspires me.

What's your favorite thing about Fall? Perhaps these quotes will get you thinking. They speak my heart much more eloquently than I...

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter. ~Carol Bishop Hipps

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot


Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. ~Stanley Horowitz


No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face.

~John Donne


Besides the autumn poets sing,
A few prosaic days
A little this side of the snow
And that side of the haze.

~Emily Dickinson


October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter. ~Nova Bair

Comments
on Oct 18, 2005
Leabes are beautiful when they are in the trees, not when they fall down and have to be raked.
on Oct 18, 2005
No pretty foliage here, but the air is slowly getting a cool bite to it. Fall is my 2nd fave season, right behind winter...I love it.
on Oct 18, 2005
In the late eighties and early nineties my friends and I would load up and drive all night (500 miles) to the Gulf coast and spend a week redfishing and floundering. Fun! And we would return home and have a huge fish fry and return to work sowing wheat and readying for the cotton harvest after frost that usually comes here in mid November. A nice article about a nice time...
on Oct 18, 2005
This will be our first actual winter in about six years. From what we're being told, Maryland's winter will be a doozy, too. We've been living in Texas, and before that, coastal California.

Funny story about the weather in Monterey, CA: we drove to visit family in Salt Lake City at Christmas. When we left Monterey, it was 55 degrees and cloudy, just like every day in Monterey, regardless of the season. We drove up and over the Sierra Nevadas all day and stopped for the night in Elko, Nevada. When we got out of he car, it was 11 degrees. Welcome back to winter!!

Not since my kids were very young have they trudged through the snow. Should be an interesting season...
on Oct 18, 2005

When we got out of he car, it was 11 degrees. Welcome back to winter!!

Not quite that bad.  But 20s are common.  teens on occasions.  Lower than that rarely.

on Oct 20, 2005
Inbloom:
Fall is my 2nd fave season, right behind winter...I love it.

Ummmmmm... how come? !!


Shovelheat:
In the late eighties and early nineties my friends and I would load up and drive all night (500 miles) to the Gulf coast and spend a week redfishing and floundering. Fun! And we would return home and have a huge fish fry and return to work sowing wheat and readying for the cotton harvest after frost that usually comes here in mid November

That DOES sound like fun...
on Oct 20, 2005
This will be our first actual winter in about six years. From what we're being told, Maryland's winter will be a doozy, too. We've been living in Texas, and before that, coastal California. Funny story about the weather in Monterey, CA: we drove to visit family in Salt Lake City at Christmas. When we left Monterey, it was 55 degrees and cloudy, just like every day in Monterey, regardless of the season. We drove up and over the Sierra Nevadas all day and stopped for the night in Elko, Nevada. When we got out of he car, it was 11 degrees. Welcome back to winter!!Not since my kids were very young have they trudged through the snow. Should be an interesting season...

I hope you enjoy it! Do your kids remember snow? I can't imagine growing up without snow... it's just what I've always known. I remember when a neighbor's kids experienced snow for the first time. They were walking around like they were dreaming. They were from Thailand... and had never seen snow before. They loved it! I even had fun watching them enjoy it... in spite of the frigid temps!