Monday, September 22, 2008

to the 'bers

We are in Montana this week. Kalispell, to be exact. Chip is here for business and Alice and I tagged along, leaving the kitties to hold the fort at home. This is a beautiful place. We hope to have some time for sight seeing - including Glacier National Park. It would be a shame to come this far and only see the inside of our hotel room, but I'm actually looking forward to that, too. Alice and I will be inspecting the POOL, to be sure. The beauty of being here all alone during the day? We can make a pool run and be relatively sure that we will be ALONE for MY entrance into the pool. Oh the thought of that bathing suit sitting in my suitcase just gives me the shudders. Anyway. As I said, beautiful place... as we drove in from the airport Chip and I were remarking about the just-about-to-turn leaves and I remembered that today is the first day of FALL.

Have I told you that this is my favorite time of year? Fall, autumn, the 'bers in all their sweetest. The oranges and browns and warm golds that color everything from the trees and falling leaves to the sweaters I haul out of my closet. I love what this season does to my mood: it brings introspection, a warm toastiness to every nook and cranny of my heart. I think about Halloween and it's impending wonder (the just ever so slight creep to it) - I think about Alice and what her costume is going to be. Halloween is a Child's Holiday if ever there was one: with the tingly creep, the candy, the costumes, the chilly nights just MADE for cuddling. I think about Thanksgiving with pumpkin pie and turkey and family gatherings. I think about Christmas down the way and.... oh FALL HOW I LOVE YOU SO!!!


Whimsy's Favorite Fall Things

THE FOOD:
Pumpkin bread, fresh from the oven.
Pumpkin bread, a day old - toasted in the toaster oven with BUTTER.
Hot cocoa with vanilla (it's the Stephen's brand and it seriously rocks my WORLD).

THE MOVIE:
Something Wicked This Way Comes. (EVERY YEAR - you can ask Chip)

THE BOOK:
Lord of the Rings trilogy. I read it every year, beginning in the fall. Means I usually hit Return of the King around Christmas, which is just perfect.



Now I want to know - what is autumn to you? Do you listen to certain music? Make certain recipes? Watch certain movies? Come on, tell me all about your fall rituals.


12 comments:

Kristi said...

I love the 'bers too!

I was never big on Halloween until my daughter was born, and now I look forward to it every year. Now she's old enough to watch silly Halloween movies and read "scary" stories. So fun.

I also love when it's time to start decorating for Christmas. It's all green and red and pretty! And I have to watch A Christmas Story (You'll shoot your eye out!!) and It's a Wonderful Life.

And eggnog and pumpkin pie and OMG this post has made me all excited!!

nomadicspud said...

Homemade soup and homemade bread. Mmmmm, welcome fall. Great post!

Susie Q said...

Feel totally the same way....Fall to me is Cider Mills,the pumkin poatch, hayrides the sound of leaves crunching as you walk down the street. The smell of burning leaves, Yankee Candles lit all the time when I'm home in the scents Macintosh, Home Sweet Home, and Spiced Pumpkin. Also for some reason these movies to me are fall movies, When Harry met Sally, You've got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle...I know,I know I have a thing about Meg Ryan movies. I think to me they are fall movies because in 2 of them they are set in New York and have scenes of New York in the fall and that is one of my ultimate dreams to go to NY in the fall. Also The Wizard of Oz on Thanksgiving. I won't even go into Christmas, I could rhapsodize for hours about Christmas.

wandering nana said...

I love to start putting up decorations. I bring out my fall wreath (autumn leaves) then 'The Count (Drac) replaces the leaves and out comes the Halloween stuff...during this time I love to put leaves and pumpkins on my table and begin to make soup and bread and get out my auto-frothy hot chocolate drink and throw on my blanket.

M said...

Everyone keeps asking me if things are getting better with the Boy and I don't quite know how to explain to them that things are oh so much better and much of it has to do with the END of summer and the beginning of AUTUMN.

I watch Charlie Brown and the great Pumpkin Patch. Every year. Am a dork.

I love homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

And warm vanilla pudding. But I'll second you on the pumpkin bread hot from the oven.

The Boy and I have been taking long walks in the morning so that he can see the leaves just starting to turn and hear the crunch crunch crunch as we walk on them. I can't wait to see him in his Halloween Sleeper from his Aunty Whimsy.

Secret Mom Thoughts said...

I love pumpkin picking, homemade apple pie, Halloween for the kids, and snuggling under blankets.

stacie d said...

I'm going against the grain here by saying that fall makes me a little sad...because it means baseball is about to end. However, my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, so at least I have that to look forward to!

tearese said...

A woman after my own heart.
I post about this every year. We watch the Worst Witch with Faruza Balk, and Hocus Pocus, with Bette Middler. Both so corney, but so fun! I am always more in the mood to go out in the fall than I am in the hot horrid summer.

Alice said...

i LOVE fall! everyone used to say it's only because my bday is in the fall... but, not the case! i just love FALL.

i love the cooler weather, i love sleeping with my windows open, i love the leaves turning, i love the SMELL of the air when it gets cooler.. i love halloween and i love thanksgiving even more... and dude i so want pumpkin bread (and pumpkin pie!) now STAT...

artemisia said...

Oh man! Do you have a recipe for pumpkin bread? Would you share it? I will proudly file it as, "Whimsy's Awesome Fall Pumpkin Bread."

I love that it gets cool enough to bake bread again, the earthy smell of the leaves, the sound of leaves rustling on the ground...Oh, I love fall!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Swistle said...

Ginger snaps, warm, with vanilla ice cream.