Yes, I am posting again! I know...I know...please hold your applause (did you ever notice that applause looks alot like applesauce? Weird, huh?). I have been totally swamped over the summer mainly with animals and rodeos and kids (it was really a blurry mess so it is hard to tell what is what!). Overall, it was great! Lots of fun, a few bumps and bruises and tons of laughs. I am so glad however, that the summer has come to an end and today really feels like fall. Could be that way because tomorrow if the first day of fall...duh, Mel!

I just LOVE autumn. It is my absolute favorite time of year. Not just because my wedding anniversary is in Autumn (I just was NOT a summer wedding kind of gal) or the fact that my husband and daughter were born in Autumn or that my son was born in December at the end of fall or even that my most favorite holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) are during this time of year. I love the sense of slowing down and settling in that takes place during this time of year. Things begin to move at a more relaxing pace. No longer filling the long days with running and playing and the need to get to the never ending work outside, but now there is time to store up for winter, stay inside together and enjoy quieter activities like playing board games and watching movies and reading. I feel ready to tackle the inside of the house and get it ready to spend more time in. During the summer I just run and run and run and the house begins to come apart. Time to restore order here.

I love the changes outside. The leaves turning from vibrant emerald to crimson and gold and covering the grass, the road and my car. The clouds masking the blue sky and the rain refreshing the ground. Shorter days lull us to bed sooner making the early rise on school mornings easier than the first days at the beginning of September. The horses and goats are showing signs of the wooly winter coat to come and Champ is finally going to stop shedding. The chickens are rising later and hurrying in earlier at night. Soon the Christmas trees surrounding us will be cut and loaded...headed for cities where no snow falls in winter...some will go across the oceans where Christmas trees don't even grow. The air will smell crisp and clear and set my heart thinking about the holidays soon coming. I can enjoy the smells of Christmas long before it is actually here.

We still have warm days (for the most part through October) but cold nights with cool evenings and snappy mornings. Autumn is like breathing again after the craziness of summer...as if a huge sigh of relief was released. I think that perhaps today would be a good one to make an apple pie and think of the hearty stew for dinner...

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot

No spring nor summer beauty hath such graceAs I have seen in one autumnal face.~John Donne