The First Day of Fall!

The air is crisp, the sky is slate blue with a slight haze, the pumpkins are out, the welcome wreath with fake leaves and pheasant feathers is on the door, the garden is mulched, so it must be the first day of fall.

Goodbye to summer, but not quite yet. I’m not ready. My tomatoes are still flourishing, my flowers are blooming (not just the mums!), and I haven’t put my summer clothes away (I wore white today for the last time). The leaves are turning and there’s that smokiness in the air that reminds me that soon frost will paste the windows and I’ll need to rummage through the boxes in the basement for winter sweaters and coats. Oh no!

But before I say “hello winter,” I’m heading off to San Diego to spend five days with my family. My little brother is getting married. Yeah! It’s going to be a party (that’s what I keep telling my mom). It’s a long story, but you can pray!

When I return on October 7th on the “red eye,” I leave for New Jersey to speak at Merck Pharmaceuticals Global Network of Women, and that weekend a retreat at Wapiti, Maryland. As a speaker, October is my busiest time because it’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month—the month of pink. And I will need to gear up for planes, trains and automobiles.

This will be one of our last falls in Pennsylvania, so I will treasure the speckled leaves that look like the back of a giraffe, the crisp mornings, and the changing of the seasons because in fifteen months (a little less now), we will return once again to my home—California—where I belong.

I feel like I’m going to break out and sing a John Denver song (and you don’t want that—do you?).

That’s what I like about fall—the first day anyway!



P.S. I will blog sporadically the month of October as time allows, but if not I'll see you in November!