1. Share a highlight from this summer. (If you please, don't just say "our vacation to the Canadian Rockies." Give us a little detail or image. Help us live vicariously through you!)
I remember sitting up in the nosebleed seats of Comerica Park, watching the Detroit Tigers but also looking at the downtown skyline, thinking about how my mother spent some very enjoyable years -- probably the best years of her life -- working as a secretary there, before she got married and moved to Outer Podunk. I felt, for a moment, as if she were revisiting Detroit through me.
2. Are you glad to see this summer end? Why or why not?
In a way I am, because we've had a lot of illness and stress this season that I'd just as soon distance myself from. On the other hand -- as much as I love autumn, the discernably shortening days of late summer always make me feel melancholic.
3. Name one or two things you're looking forward to this fall.
I am looking forward to apple season, particularly looking for antique apples; and I'm looking forward to leaf-peeping "up north" as the season progresses.
4. Do you have any special preparations or activities to mark the transition from one season to another? (Cleaning of house, putting away summer clothes, one last trip to the beach)
Sadly, the rituals are all un-fun, practical ones: replacing and weatherstripping the storm windows; calling the furnace guy for an inspection and cleanup; pulling straggly annuals and spent tomato plants. Well...let me take that back: Going to the Wheatland Music Festival, the weekend after Labor Day, is an enjoyable transition; it usually still feels like summer proper, but the morning mist and chill, the drying grass of the fields, the scattered red and yellow leaves here and there along the roadsides, hint of a change.
5. I'll know that fall is really here when __________________________________.
When I hear the furnace turn on!
Hat tip: The gorgeous artwork is Ros Forbush's "End of Summer," available at South Street Gallery .
13 comments:
The furnace, oh yeah...wakes me up every time for the first week or so...
What are antique apples? Are they like heirloom tomatoes? How do they taste?
I loved your mucho salsa entry.
happy end of summer to you....
Wow, that's the most unique answer to #1 so far... Good play.
Yes...antique apples are heirloom apples...a lot more variance in flavor, color and texture than the standard supermarket varieties. As longtime readers know, I also look for "volunteer" apple trees along the byways of Outer Podunk, just for the fun of trying them.
BTW: The salsa tastes great. The kitchen is a disaster area, but the salsa tastes great. We think all but one of the jars sealed. And there's even talk of moving on to applesauce in the autumn.
If the days weren't so short in fall, it would be my favorite season, but here in the north, we give up lots of daylight in exchange for changing seasons. Beats heat and humidity of the south, right?
Your post was a good thing for me today: lots to look forward to in the upcoming fall...and a good change from the topic on my mind, as I posted on my blog.
Grin... to combine your two posts... I LOVE canning and don't have the time to do it much... Bearded Spouse says that homemade salsa is much better than the grocery store stuff. So is homemade applesauce... oohhh... yum... warm from the pan...
(drool)
d
ROFLMBO...You left me a comment with this in it. But I only know the first four letters. What is MBO?
Thanks, friend.
Rolling On the Floor Laughing My Butt Off. The PG version of ROFLMAO.;-)
Great play- I can almost feel and smell autumn through your post! I've never heard of heirloom apples before....
All this talk about furnaces and leaf peeping is making me homesick for places farther north than Oklahoma. It's not as hot and humid as Texas, but still, the fall is not quite the same as NY. I loved the visual that you painted so well in #1.
Ahh, the furnace. Forgot about that. Nothing like that smell of burning dust in the morning! Great play. Love the picture also.
With you on the furnace! That Music Festival sounds like fun. I'll be in your state next week, taking my son to school!
I love your number 1. How neat that you experienced that connection with your mom.
I get sort of sad at this time of year too.
You and furnaces too?
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