Hello Fall!

good-bye to the summer of the "silly bands"

I’m not sure how it happened but somehow, in the busyness of life I totally missed the official start of Fall.   One day it was summer, on the calendar and out our front door, and then I realized yesterday it was time to flip the calendar to October.  So now my calendar clearly shows Fall is underway even if the temperatures outside are still soaring into the nineties most afternoons and the sun continues to beat down in earnest here in Florida. 
    October at our house means pumpkin decorations all over the house and warm home-made pumpkin bread straight out of the oven.  The kids start to think about costumes- one for Halloween and one for our home school group’s annual All Saints party both coming at the very end of the month.   We watch a few local churches set up make shift pumpkin patches in fields off their parking lots and excitedly think about visiting for some beautiful Fall photo ops and a chance to find the perfect “canvas” for our smiling Halloween jack-o-lantern.
We start our days with steaming mugs of hot chocolate, not because we are really cold inside but because it is the special morning treat we all share together as soon as summer is passed.  Thoughts turn from swimming with our friends in their backyard pools to meeting them at the park and playing for hours in the shade of the trees.  We make plans to go camping, and to start going on weekly nature walks again.  We watch the squirrels frolicking around the backyard and wait for the birds, and the “snowbirds” (flocks of retirees, our part-time neighbors), to start arriving from up north.  We cross hurricanes off the top of our worry list, at least for another year.  We enjoy the excitement of post-season baseball, this year with our own Tampa Bay Rays joining in the fun.  Tim and I eagerly await our anniversary, on October 26, reflecting on how quickly the years fly by.  We take a breath between the summer of birthday after birthday after birthday and the coming of Christmas season when gift giving and festivities begin anew. 
    The weather may take a little while to catch up with the calendar and Fall in Florida may have traditions a little different than the rest of the country but I am still filled with cozy autumn thoughts as I look forward to the changing of the seasons.  And, I am filled with hope that any day now the afternoons really will be pleasant and beautiful because this morning, my son announced, as he set out quite early to play in the backyard, that there was actually a bit of a chill in the air…

The view over my front yard the other night- a promise of Autumn, perhaps?