What I love most about fall is the feeling of anticipation
- col-lee-elliot-aging-graciously
- September 26, 2024
- 579
It is officially autumn, my favorite time of the year. The blue skies and colored trees are enough to satisfy my appetite for natural beauty, though I’m not sure how much color we will get this year. The National Forestry Service says rain and cloudiness produce brighter colors than consistently hot, sunny days, and we all know how that has gone.
What I love most about fall is the feeling of anticipation. I can begin to feel just a tad of what is coming in late August. By September everything begins to change. When I was growing up, I could hardly contain my excitement, knowing school would start the day after Labor Day, the band would march at the county fair and the holiday season would be off to a full start. My heart still beats faster when I hear a crowd cheering or band playing at the stadium near my home.
Fall is both a time of ending and of beginning. You will probably laugh when I tell you I still adhere to the old rule of not wearing white after Labor Day. Legend has it the custom is at least 200 years old. Wealthy New Yorkers would spend their summers on vacation near the coast, wearing white outfits, a sign of being upper class who didn’t get dirty working, and exchanging them for the darker hues of fall and winter by Labor Day.
The trend, of course, has all but disappeared, but somehow it fits for me. Whites go in storage for the winter during the fall change, signifying the end of spring and summer.
The garden begins its ending in late August. Some years I have had bounty through November. This year there was no bounty in my beds except for a couple of beautiful pumpkins and a bunch of ragtag tomatoes. I do not have a watering system. It is time to test the soil, make amendments, cover the boxes, and clean and oil the tools.
Still, as the garden finishes, I am already planning for next year’s success. I pore over seed catalogs. Which seeds will I plant in the barn in February? How can I grow cabbage for sauerkraut when my butterfly bushes are covered with cabbage moths that decimated 20 heads this year? Should I cut back on the amount I am trying to grow? I’m no longer feeding six people. It’s a hard habit to break. I’m not sure how it will end.
The holiday season is beginning. Halloween is here, according to many residents already decorating. It is another start. Before you know it, we will all be dreaming of a white Christmas.