Fall is Coming

I can definitely feel the change of the season coming.  Fall is quickly getting ready to usurp Summer's place as reigning king of the outdoors and I, for one, couldn't be happier.  Aside from the fact that the Fall season contains one of my favorite "holidays", it also holds the distinction, for me at least, of being one of the most beautiful times of year.

Summer, with all its wonderful heat, bright sun, green trees, and swimming, simply cannot beat the scent of trees, leaves, and grasses carried upon a gentle breeze, the cool weather that invites you to take a walk outside, the beautifully colored canopies of trees, and the sudden magnificent storms that come out of nowhere.  Summer is a bland stretch of monotony, Fall is a refreshingly short stride through ever changing days.

Summer was always more fun when we were kids anyway.

Summer as a Kid

Summer as an Adult

As a kid, you got the summer off from school and you had the whole day to get out there and just enjoy life.  You didn't care how hot it was because you could take your shirt off, sit in the shade under a tree, climb to the top of a hill, or ride your bike to the pool.  In most cases, Fall, like a fine wine, can only really be appreciated with age.  When you were a kid, fall signaled the start of the school year.  You had to wear a jacket when you went outside and there were precious few hours of daylight after school during which you could do the important work that comes with being a kid, like catching salamanders.

I have, however, always appreciated the Fall season.  I lived on a mountain in the woods while I was growing up and spent a lot of time outside, among the trees.  You really have to be in the forest to appreciate all the sounds, the smells, and the colors.  Living there, close to nature, that's where I developed my love for fall.  Summer was vibrant with life, but it was lazy, hot, and sluggish. Fall was the knife-edge before Winter where life didn't have the luxury of taking a nap.

The woods where I grew up have been mostly removed in order to put up cookie cutter homes for the newly affluent residents who live in my home region during the summer.  The left some of the trees, but mostly as a backdrop to the homes, so that they could say that the homes were located in a rustic area and charge an extra $250,000 for the opportunity to feel like you were roughing it out there in the boonies. I still remember them though.  I remember the names for all the little hidden places: the tree graveyard, the dark spot, deer tick hill, hunter's hideaway, and so many others.

Now as Fall approaches, I can't help but think that I'm not well positioned to experience it, and I haven't been for the last three years.  Living in the suburbs, even well planned out communities that utilize a lot of trees as cover for all the ugly buildings, has made it difficult to recapture the wonder that I experienced for over twenty years every time that fall came around.