summerlist: ready for fall?
Aug 23, 2010 Listen up, lazyhood. Here’s what Colleen wrote in response to my post-vacation blues the other day. It made me smile so big that I wanted to trot it out front and center and share with everyone:
Oh, how I hate the end of summer funk. I usually have a pity party for a day or two. Then I have an ode to summer weekend that includes lots of swimming, margaritas, and BBQ.
But then after that I start my fall preparation ritual. I make oatmeal raisin cookies and start thinking about camping trips (cuz it is too dang hot in TX to camp in the summer), smores, tall brown boots, football, pumpkins, cinnamon, and sippin' hot chocolate. Works like a charm every time.
It made me wonder, what end-of-summer or welcome-to-fall rituals do you have?
image by SFGirlByBay, via Poppytalk Handmade
end of summer, fall, ready for fall in summer list
Reader Comments (9)
I live in a colder climate than you. For us fall is transition and preparation. We are harvesting tomatoes, potatoes, peas, raspberries, saskatoons etc. and madly storing them for winter. I went through my daughter's clothes yesterday seeing how many long sleeve shirts and sweaters she had for the upcoming school year.
Soon we'll make apple sauce to keep for the winter and we'll know that fall is really upon us.
Most of my pre-fall rituals have to do with indulging my own excitement for the coming season--
I start to jump on every opportunity to layer up with richly-hued sweaters, tuck my pants into boots, and break out my plaids. I dig through old issues of Real Simple and Martha Stewart Living and pull out the ones from September, October, and November. Sometimes I find especially pretty catalogs I've saved over the years (J. Crew and Anthropologie, I'm afraid our love affair has grown to a full bloom at this point..), and flip through the ones that feel especially autumnal, giving me inspiration to rework my wardrobe--summer pieces often included--into crisp-chill-appropriate ensembles. And, of course, I start to delight in treats I associate (sometimes exclusively) with fall--pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, hot spiced cider, sweet potato wedges with brown sugar--all preferably with a fall-inspired film playing in the background (I love the fall scenes in When Harry Met Sally & You've Got Mail).
Thanks for the shout-out, Kelly. That made my day!
We make applesauce! It's fun excuse to get a bunch of people together. Have them bring apples from their tree or the farmers market. We cut up the apples (looking out for worms!), boil them and then put them through this amazing machine called the Squeezo. Everyone goes home with applesauce. I always save it and eat it in the winter on pancakes!
My new(ish) fall ritual revolves around the start of school - well, preschool, for our boy. As he's been in shorts all summer I have no idea which (if any) of his pants will fit him or whether I need to hit the outlet stores in search of pants that won't be manpris on him. I'm also pondering which soup recipe to enter in the soup competition at the market in a couple of weeks...easing into it slowly. I know it's coming by the greyish light in the am when I wake up instead of the lovely summer sunshine...meantime I have peaches to turn into jam and I'm still waiting for my tomatoes to turn non-green....and I still have lots of Pimm's to turn into Pimm's cup.
I can't wait for apple picking! I live in Boston, and Boston was meant for the fall. The sycamores that line the Charles River turn golden - and the weather is perfect for long runs.
I love fall. LOVE. First thing I do is air out my collection of blankets, for those rare few weeks between summer's real heat and winter's overheated New York apartments when I actually can curl up under a blanket.
Also, taking stock of camping equipment before we head up to Vermont to see the first flash of orange and red.
I cannot wait.
Autumn is my favorite season of them all. I swap out airy summer colors in my wardrobe for rusts and browns and maroons. I live in corduroy and take a stroll down memory lane at the university campus I graduated from, sipping apple cider and revisiting all my old haunts! This year, I'll do it for the first time with a baby carriage! Good thing I bought the one with the cupholders ;)
Living in Florida, we don't really get too much of a fall. But on the bright side we do get to have all the humidity go away. So we have more summery fun, like camping, cookouts and beautiful beach days. Fall and spring are the best seasons down here!