Ten Things I Love About Fall

Yes - I thought I'd be at Hotel Hope by August, then September, then October, then . . . Well, you get the idea. The good news is that I can be an "outdoor cat" during my favorite season of the year.

Here are ten things that I love about fall:

1. Light and shadow: Ordinary scenes look magical in the fall light.

I took these pictures in our bedroom, kitchen and dining room.You can catch a glimpse of one of my favorite fall portraits of Cindy, age 8, in the kitchen photo. (Click to enlarge.) She's standing in a light-dappled oak grove, holding an oak leaf. The antique oak frame is surrounded by miniature acorns. Yep, the whole vignette was heavily "art directed."

2. Long walks at high noon: I no longer need to rise early to stride before the temperatures rise.

These miniature "mushrooms" sprouting around the giant 'shroom are a recent walking discovery.

3. Candied Apples: Have you seen the "Martha" version with twigs instead of popsicle sticks? I plan to make the red candied apples AND the caramel version with heavy cream (no Kraft squares).

4. Clear Skies: We could see Catalina Island from the balcony of John and Terry's Laguna Beach home during their wedding ceremony last Monday. Heavenly!

5. Acorns: I love collecting these treasures when I walk.

Don't these look lovely in a tarnished silver candy dish?
The one with the greenish "hat" is from an English oak, an unusual find in Southern California.

6. Planting: While my white blood counts are out of the danger zone, I'm planting iris bulbs (compliments of an Altadena neighbor), sugar snap peas and winter greens and replacing a Jerusalem sage.

7. Harvesting: Persimmons, figs and grapes are now ripe and we're still enjoying fresh tomatoes and Japanese eggplant from our garden. And, of course, my favorite fall harvest are those 2 million+ stem cells safely stored away in a CoH silo.

8. Pumpkin Patches: I even love the crassly commercial ones with pony rides and giant slides.

9. Halloween: The decorations, the costumes, the haunted houses, the trick or treaters - love it all.

10. Smells: My nostrils and lungs can't get enough of the scent of the crisp leaves and the even crisper air.

And the one thing I hate about fall? Candy corn.

What do you love most about fall?