What I Love About Autumn

What I Love About Autumn; Or twenty ways to appreciate fall:1. The scents: Crisp autumn leaves (I wish that scent could be bottled and made into a perfume), hot apple cider on the stove, pie in the oven, and a fresh picked apple.

2. Nature’s confetti: colorful leaves fluttering down from the trees. The patterns they make as they fall. The way leaves look floating in dark waters. Pressing leaves into pages of books. (All the amazing gifts colorful New England leaves give to us!)

3. Hot apple cider in my hands as I sit outside.

4. The golden fall light as the sun goes down.

5. Family gatherings outside on warm autumn days and chilly autumn nights. Children jumping into leaf piles!

6. The scarecrows popping up all over the small towns.

7. Halloween! (I may still be obsessed with the dress-up aspect as well as the classic movies like Hocus Pocus and Halloween Town. I promise, I am an adult!)

8. Hay rides and pumpkin patches.

9. Apple picking! Then carrying my basket full home to make homemade apple pie and apple dump cake. (My grandma’s recipe! I will be sharing this recipe with you soon.)

10. Fall engagement photos. The best!

11. Pumpkin ice cream at Rich Farm in Oxford. They have the best farm fresh ice cream in Connecticut (one of the state’s best kept secrets). Get there early because the line can get long.

12. Haunted houses, especially the Haunted Graveyard at Lake Compounce, the oldest amusement park in the United States.

13. Farmers markets.

14. Corn mazes like the 7-acre maze in Newtown.

15. Hiking and early autumn camping.

16. All the amazing seasonal fairs and festivals.

17. Leaves blowing across the road as I drive by.

18. Autumn decorations all over town.

19. Local honey, like B’s Honey that my cousin Brian (“B”) collects form his home hives in Bethlehem.

20. Feeling thankful for all the wonderful gifts in my life, including the season.