autumnal 5

autumnal 5 on the revgals

I love SingingOwl's intro:

There is something so nostalgic about this time of year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. The nights grow cooler, crops are harvested, for some of us the leaves are beginning to change colors. The scent of smoke is in the air, pumpkins are in the stores (or on wagons, or in roadside stands for those of us in the country). I'm thinking of putting away my summer clothes and pulling out the sweaters. And I have a tub of Fall-themed items that my husband just lugged up from the basement. I'm looking for my scarecrow.

And I have a scarecrow, too! I bought it at one of the Christmas Tree Shops on Cape Cod and it is so cute it stays in a living room corner all year round.

1. So many memories of the falling time of the year, but maybe especially taking a trek to Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts or to Julian, California to buy pumpkins and apples along the way and probably enjoy a hearty lunch or dinner at our destination, too. Remembering and anticipating Autumn smells like apple pies, crisps, and cobblers.

I also truly love going back to school rituals of buying clothes, notebooks, papers, pens, pencils and other supplies and the way it always feels like the new beginning it truly is.

2. I love corduroy pants (typically jean-styled) and skirts, in any and all colors, but especially camel, brown, rust and burgundy. Sweaters, too, ideally bright or intense multicolors. I do not care for the convention of switching to dark, sober, somber hues when the days grow colder and shorter and still for the life of me do not understand why or even when almost everyone started wearing so much black so much of the time, even in high summer and even at weddings. Did they or do they imagine black makes them look thinner and smaller? About favorite fall clothes, in New England and in the Intermountain West I loved knowing I had to have a warm jacket or parka on hand for the cold mornings that inevitably would arrive.

3. Campfire experiences camping out with a tent-trailer, occasionally in a rented cabin with friends or youth groups almost all year round, but in the fall was particularly fun because of the need to be sure we stayed warm enough. There always were plentiful nature trails and places to ride our bicycles along with meals that warmed us up and always were especially delicious and nourishing and filling.

4. Favorite thing again has to be the sense of new beginnings that in many ways functions like Easter, a feast of resurrected new life more halfway through the liturgical year though not quite to Advent yet, but I also love the way Advent begins during the season of autumn in the northern hemisphere.

5. What changes am I anticipating at this seasonal and calendrical marker? Something has to change and I cannot do life on my own, though of necessity I've been trying to do so.

Bonus: for an autumn food, it has to be anything apple and/or pumpkin, preferably baked, ideally with a crust.

Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest. Jeremiah 5:23b

Thanks SingingOwl and thanks, Jeremiah!