When the alarm went off (on my phone) this morning, I rolled out of bed and checked the weather (also on my phone, I think I'm an addict) and found that it was 59 degrees outside. 59! We've had a run of truly glorious days. Cool mornings, pleasant afternoons, light sweater evenings. That 10 or 15 degree difference, especially in late afternoon, has changed everything. Lots of time outside, working on the house or playing in the yard, biking to the park or just sitting on the front steps, enjoying the breeze and the dappled light.
Fall is my favorite season. Spring comes in close, mostly because I love to plant things, love the possibility of spring. But fall has always been the season I want to last and last and last. When I was in elementary school we lived in a town that was, to my child's eyes, packed with maple trees. Every autumn the hills around our house were bright with yellow and orange and red and even purple leaved trees. Although I'm sure it wasn't so, fall seemed to go on and on back then. Long days of cool weather and crunching to school amidst fallen leaves. Here fall does not last long. So I'm enjoying it while it's here (and also I am totally ignoring the fact that tomorrow will be hot again. It IS fall. It IS fall!).
Evelyn has made an unconscious transition into fall as well. She has, without us telling her or even suggesting it, started to wear her old favorite of pants and skirt or pants and dress again. I love sundresses, seeing her tan little arms and legs under a strappy, filmy, twirly dress, but the pants and skirt and shirt and sweater look is somehow just so Evie. This morning she bounced out of bed - unlike her brother who has begun the "just five more minutes mom" thing in the morning- and put on long pink leggings, her green-and-polka-dot-with-a-flower-mom! dress and a soft sweater and headed outdoors. She keeps putting on a coat as we walk out the door, whether it's cool enough or not, and pawing through her collection of tights, which, considering the fact that she has shot up about two inches this summer, probably needs culling and restocking.
Soon the big tree across the street will turn a violent yellow, one of the few maples in a neighborhood of oaks and dogwoods and cherries. They are all beautiful in the fall, but that maple, it makes my day.
Is it turning fall where you are? I hope so. Because it's about time this loooong summer came to an end.