In The Drunk Breath of Autumn

Wouldn't you love to be driving along this crisp, uninhabited road with the windows down, music playing, sipping something warm with nutmeg or cinnamon, wearing your softest, lightest sweater, and feeling carefree?

 

 

Autumn is approaching and I can't tell you how much I love this time of year.  I wanted to show you the photographs I took a few years ago of the gorgeous fall colors seen in up-upstate New York, (just south of Ottawa), but they are nowhere to be found.  This image nicely represents those brilliant colors.

Fall leaves weren't something I always enjoyed.  As a kid, living on several acres of woodland, Saturday mornings were spent raking endless amounts of leaves and picking up dumb sticks, which I would pretend to do for a couple of hours after having mastered the art of carrying around the same stick unnoticed, while my brothers did the real work.

Now, I appreciate these leaves and "allow" them to lie where they fall (with dignity and laziness) while enjoying other, chore-less aspects of Autumn, like

MORNINGS

This is the perfect time of year (in my backyard) to simply look up.   

Unlike "big sky" country, where it's magical to look up during most of the year, it isn't until after the Sun's fat ass dips below the celestial equator (our Autumnal equinox) that I can see previously "hidden" stars.

This is when the constellations currently residing at the celestial equator come into better view.  Like Orion.  Even though the equinox is still a few weeks away, Orion has already moved from my front yard (which I rarely occupy during early morning hours) to my backyard where I can lean my head back and stare straight up at the bright, orange, "red supergiant" star, Betelgeuse, within it.  (The plume of gas emitted by this sun could easily engulf our solar system.)

Fall is the best time of year to start looking up and checking things out, like Jupiter and other magnificent, I-don't-always-know-what-I'm-looking-at things with the naked eye.

PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES

If you know me at all, you know I love coffee.  Not that disgusting "bold, black" kind of coffee, but the kind with sugars, creams, and syrups.  My taste buds are young at heart in this respect.  

Next week marks the return of Starbucks' (my crack dealer of choice) Pumpkin Spice lattes, which are more delicious than they may sound. 

Made with espresso, steamed milk, pumpkin-flavored syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and whipped cream, it has an inviting aroma that makes me want to settle in and snuggle up with a good book.  I don't actually do that, but it gives me the feeling that I could if I wanted to. 

I feel a kindred spirit with the woman in this photo pointing excitedly at the "Pumpkin Spice Lattes [are back]" sign, except I would probably push past her to make my order while she wastes her decaffeinated time taking this picture. You snooze you lose.

AND OF COURSE...

There's Sunday football, cool weather, delicious foods, a reason to wear boots, the return of school, Hope's debut as "[Miss] November" in a boxer rescue calendar, insects going the way of the dodo...you get the idea. 

I love Autumn in the Fall.

:)