the calm before the storm

today is a picture perfect autumn day. the sun is shining. the baby blue sky is dotted with bundles of cottony white clouds. there is a not too bad sweater chilly breeze blowing....................

but tomorrow - all that will change.

we are expecting our first nor'easter of the year. no snow - but heavy rain and temperatures in the high 40s....and its supposed to stay that way until next week.

what can i say - it happens.

i just wish it didn't happen this early in the season.

N is for New Experiences................

joining cub scouts is new for us this year. my oldest never had the desire to join so i was happy when my youngest wanted to try it out. i never joined girl scouts as a child so i really didn't know too much about it. yet - from what i had heard about scouts - its seemed like it would fit into our lifestyle quite nicely. i was right. my oldest is having so much fun tagging along to events that he wants to join boy scouts next year. i'm enjoying it too and have volunteered to be a den leader.

we had our first cub-o-ree this past weekend and even though it was chilly and dreary the boys had a great time. they learned about firestarting, rope making, using slingshots and compass skills to name a few.

this event also was the setting for another new experience.......my son's first meat hot dog. i had packed sandwiches for everyone knowing that there would only be hot dogs served. being "different" never seemed to bother my oldest....and for the most part my youngest doesn't mind either - until he saw the other cubs all eating hot dogs. i thought about bringing veggie hot dogs but didn't think it would matter that much - well it did..........so once he saw everyone eating a hot dog - and he had a cheese sandwich in front of him - he asked for one. after i told him it was meat he still didn't care - so i took a deep breathe and casually went in and got him one. while we are raising our boys as vegetarians we aren't making them be vegetarians. if they want to try meat they can....and if they chose to become meat eaters than that is fine too. but we'll cross that bridge when and if we get to it. so for now - a meat hotdog it is.....

while carving pumpkins is not new to us - it was to this little boy. he is in town from california visiting a friend of mine. he wanted to experience autumn like we do - including carving pumpkins...so my friend very kindly set up a pumpkin carving playdate. we all enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

you know - i think it is sad that so many people - including children - don't bother to carve pumpkins anymore. you can buy fake pumpkins at craft stores to carve - or avoid the mess completely and just paint them. i don't know - i think there is something magical in the whole process of choosing the perfect pumpkin - then picking a pattern - cutting off the top - scooping out all the slimy but oh so tasty pumpkin seeds - using all those cool little tools to carve and finally putting in the candle and stepping back to see your image come alive! my sil recently started holding a pumpkin carving party every year and it is definitely a highlight of our season.

M is for multitude of color..............

in southeastern pa our leaves are just now starting to change and have yet to explode into the amazing display of seasonal color that is autumn. but - there is no need to wait a few weeks to see the beauty of the fall. if you look below the canopy you'll find that there is plenty of color to see.

i love how some colors seem to pop against the not so vibrant backdrop of dead, brown leaves and overcast days. colors that were almost bleached out by the sunny glorious days of summer appear to have been repainted and refreshed........

just when the last of our summer flowers are fading - mums appear for one last hurrah before the winter puts them all to rest.

we have had an explosion of berries this year - all ripe and ready to be enjoyed by the many birds that will visit our yard this winter.

what colors have you seen today?...........

U is for unpredictable...........and utterances

i generally find it quite hard to plan my days in autumn. there are so many things i want to fit into the season - apple picking, fall festivals, hayrides, corn mazes, decorating for halloween. then comes the struggle of trying to squeeze those wants into a schedule already full of soccer, cub scouts and back to school nites. at times it can be quite frustrating......a planned trip to the orchard is cancelled b/c of storms or the desire to take a hayride on the boardwalk has to be left as a desire b/c of a cub scout event you just can't avoid.....

but sometimes the unpredictability is a good thing. for whatever reason we have our saturdays free of scheduled activities this season. all of our sports commitments fall on sunday - jam packing our already busy sundays. but that is fine - i prefer to pack in one day then ruin two. anyway - last saturday found us alone and without something to do. the predicted rain was over quicker than expected and the rest of the day was turning into a beautiful autumn one....perfect for a last minute trip to the pa renaissance faire

our family loves going to the renaissance faire. my husband loves the shows and for whatever reason seems to be the one always dragged out of the audience to participate. my oldest son got a huge kick out of the human chess match this year. i love the crafts and vendors......(aren't those head horns to die for? i can't wait to try and make my own pair for halloween this year!) we all love the costumes and of course all the bad for you but yummy faire food.

now while my family loves the faire - we have no friends who do! we've tried to bring other families along with us in the past and it wasn't the greatest experience. we ended up leaving after only a few hours b/c everyone was bored! BORED! i can't even imagine!

so this year we did it alone..........and it was a perfect day! even though we got there alittle later than expected (around 2pm) and left at closing we still have plenty of time to do at least something that each of us wanted to do........and we each left - predictably - happy.......

now some autumn utterances and sounds you'll hear in our home........

• "mom, can i please have some hot cocoa now!" (asked by my 6 year old around 9pm right before bedtime)
• "can i just try on my costume - i promise i won't ruin it for halloween" (spoken by my 6 year old starting oct 4th)
• "OMG i love warm apple cider - can we buy some for home?" (spoken by my 10 year old who won't touch an apple all year but drinks enough cinder in oct to clean out an orchard)
• the sound of the whistle (heard all day sunday, and monday nite, and any other nite football is on and my husband is home)
• "i'll have a pumpkin spice latte - pumpkin pancakes - pumpkin muffin - pumpkin ice cream......ANYTHING pumpkin (oh this is all me..........)

T is for trees and turkeys

ok - i know trees in autumn are an obvious choice - but i really really love trees. just as a birdwatcher will stop in the middle of a road to watch a red tailed hawk soar across the sky - i have been known to stop dead in my tracks - the breathe suddenly taken from me - as i round a corner and spot a lone perfect tree smack dab in the middle of a field.....or come to a clearing on a trail to find myself surrounded by the most beautiful blanket of red, yellow and orange leaves - stretched before me and on both sides in a seemingly unending quilt of marvelous color.........sigh.....

trees are always beautiful to me - one of my favorite gifts from God - but in autumn.......breathtaking.

every year around this time we get wild turkeys walking around our property. not one or two - or even 5 or 6.............the highest number we've counted was 17...........17 turkeys walking up our driveway and through our backyard - and on to their next adventure. we joke that we see them around this time b/c we are vegetarians and what safer place is there for them to hang out during this season. sometimes they mingle with the deer that live here too........and the groundhog. what a delightful sight that is! we've only seen them once this season so far.......and we always get nervous when we don't see them for awhile.......i think we are going to get some corn for them to entice them to come around more often...and so i can snap a picture of them...now that i have this blog i tend to think in pictures first - words later.........anyone else do this?

U is for under the covers.................

as i am sure i'm not the only one - this time of the year makes it really hard to get out of bed. during spring its the sound of the birds outside my window that makes me linger in bed just alittle longer - eager to catch the crescendo of their collective songs - followed by silence...my signal that its now ok to wake up and get out of bed...

in autumn its the cocoon.......i get into bed fully clothed - including wearing my favorite wool slippers. the morning finds me fully stripped down to just undies and a tissue weight tee (it used to be stripped down completely but i got tired of answering my older boy's question of "mommy, why are always naked in bed?").

i'm buried completely under the covers - windows usually open - hoping that i have a good 1/2 hour before i need to actually get out of bed. if i am blessed with that 1/2 hour - i curl myself into as tight a ball as possible - and just listen to the quiet......

i almost have my perfect bed. i have a wool mattress cover - my flannel sheets.......and an old boring comforter. my mission this autumn is to find the fluffiest - warmest comforter i can find. the problem is i have no idea what kind to get. i want non-down, preferably wool and organic wool at that. i don't want it shifting all over the place - and of course it needs to be fluffy - 5 star hotel kinda fluffy........and not expensive.......then i'll have the perfect bed.....

then i hope to find some for the boys too.

i hope to start researching later today. its all i've been thinking about lately. of course the fear is that i will find something so perfect that i won't be able to leave my cocoon at all! that's not so bad is it? its the chance i'll have to take.

My Ode to Autumn...............A is for aroma

i don't do alot of cooking in the summer. we are rarely home and the times we do find ourselves here - i usually end up looking into an empty fridge and sighing.....unable to find something exciting to cook.

and its hot........and hot kitchens aren't fun for me - esp since we rarely use the air conditioner.

but once autumn hits - i start cooking again....and its usually tons of soup and chili.

last nite was my first official start to autumn cooking. i opened the pantry and found all the ingredients i needed for vegetarian chili. actually i don't really follow a recipe for chili since i make it so often. but i decided that i really wanted some cornbread with it. so i used a recipe from the blue heron ranch cookbook and whipped up some super easy - super quick cornbread....which i now can't stop eating.......

today is soup day - i love miso soup and tend to make that and eat it 3x a day (i like mine crammed full of tofu and seaweed and shitake mushrooms)... but i found a recipe for curried veggie soup that sounds good too.....

so i'm not sure which soup i'll end up making later - but i know i can't wait to jump right in.

oh - some of my other favorite autumn aromas:

• wood burning in our kitchen's fireplace
• warm apple cider the second before you take a sip
• crunchy leaves on the trails
• cinnamon and nutmeg
• chilly mornings
• my early morning or late evening tea