noenvynofear

Happy first day of Fall!  Fall is hands down my favorite season.  For starters, the weather is perfect.  The days are cool, but not frosty and the nights are crisp and scarf worthy.  The hazy Atlanta smog goes by the wayside and bright blue skies and fluffy marshmallow clouds.  Sure there are the occasional rainy days, but who doesn’t love a good, soft Fall rain? Rainy fall days are perfect excuses to open the windows a crack and smell the earthy combo of water and leaves while indulging in a cup of coffee and a book.

I’m also a huge fan of Fall colors.  I love the warm oranges, yellows and reds that pop up in the leaves and plants.  There is nothing better to me than the day the two maple trees outside my house get that first hint of firey orange.  Then the stores begin to get in their burgundy and yellow colored mums and pumpkins and gourds of all colors.  That is how you know Fall has truly arrived. 

Fall is the time of year when you can get outside.  During the summer, I don’t want to go anywhere.  The combination of heat and humidity that Atlanta can bring in July and August (and some unfortunate years into September) is brutal and seems to get worse every year.  During the summer I tend to stay indoors.  Even though I am a good southern girl, the heat just wilts me.  Once the cool air hits, I love being outside - going for walks, hitting parks, festivals, pumpkin farms, orchards.  I even love taking my book or notebook out to the front steps and just sitting there or perhaps walking up to Starbucks and indulging in a Pumpkin Spice latte (or 2 or 3).

Speaking of festivals, it is time for a little shameless promotion.  I am blessed to go to a fantastic church, Rock Spring Presbyterian, that boasts it’s own in-house bluegrass band, Hicks with Picks.  Last year the Hick’s held the first annual Bluegrass Festival which was full of food, fun, fellowship and good bluegrass music.  Since last year was the first annual, it only stands to reason that this year is the second annual Bluegrass Festival and it is happening this Saturday (Sept. 24).  So if you are looking for something fun (and free!) to do this weekend, you should check out the awesome flyer and then come down to RSPC and check out the festival!

Aside from festivals and being outdoors during Fall, my absolute favorite thing about the season is the decorations.  I’m talking about the real, natural decorations.  Pumpkins, gourds, squashes, hay bales, horns of plenty, orb spiders and their giant webs, bunches of wheat, Indian corn, acorns and other nuts in their shells, fresh apples.  What could be better? It’s unfortunate that pumpkins and gourds are so expensive, other wise I would fill the house with them.  I already tend to go overboard on pumpkins for Halloween.  I love Halloween.  I’m not interested in the dressing up and going door to door begging for candy aspect, but I love decorating the house for Halloween - hanging spider webs, putting fake spiders and bugs everywhere, laying out some fake skulls and blood red candles and carving pumpkins.  These last few years I’ve tended to buy four large (the larger the better) carving pumpkins from Whole Foods.  I love scooping out the innards (even though it gives some people the heeby jeebies) and working on four unique faces, then lighting them up.  It’s as much for me as it is for the little candy beggars that come to the door.

Fall has so many things to look forward to - so many that I haven’t even mentioned half of them here!  Even though it is still pushing 80 degrees here in Atlanta, I know that soon the temperatures will creep back down into the 70s and then the 60s and all will be right.

Happy Fall!