Fall is in the air

(By Phil Starke, seen here)

At some point in the last two weeks while I have been working nonstop, the light has changed. All of a sudden, in the angle of the sunlight, it is starting to look like Autumn.
Fall is my favorite season. I do love summer when flowers, grass and my beloved trees are all alive and growing. Spring is a nice time of year, too. The earth awakens from it's winter nap. Winter can be beautiful in the hush of an early morning blanketed in new fallen snow, or the geometric beauty of stark black tree branches against the dove gray skies.
Fall, though, seems to be the most magical of them all. The angle of the sunlight, the smell of dry leaves (one of my favorite smells, by the way) the crispness of the mornings. I love the colors, too, of the leaves, and the bright blue skies. My favorite tree is the cottonwood, and the leaves are bright yellow and sparkle when the wind blows, creating a beautiful sound that I think is different than wind through any other tree.
Growing up, Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday, followed by Christmas and Halloween. Now, although I do still celebrate those with my family, I am learning new traditions of celebrating the sabbats of this season, Mabon and Samhain, followed by Yule.
This is the time of the year when I get the "homebody" urges; baking, and cleaning, and quilting. Dreams begin now of snuggling up in front of the fire on a cool fall night with a cup of good coffee and great conversation.
The summer is fast paced, and fun loving, but the Fall, at least for me, things tend to slow down a bit, more time for introspection and thought.
I guess it might be the country girl in me. You can take the girl out of the country, you know, but you can't take the country out of the girl... Not if it was really there to begin with... Harvest has always been a very important time for my family, and most of the families around here. The holidays that get families back together, and more time for staying home and "doing" around the house.
I guess it's just the coziness of the cooler weather, as opposed to the months of being very busy in the heat, that I love the most.