While summer is my least favorite time of year, it at least has the decency to make way for the best season ever: fall! I love, love, love fall. Always have. When I was younger it meant back to school. Buying new clothes and picking out that perfect outfit for the first day back. Got to see all the friends again that I may not have seen or even talked to over the summer. Soccer games, sleepovers, dances, and boys. My birthday, often falling on that wonderful Columbus Day weekend. Then the temperature started to drop. Cold nights and wood smoke. Apples from the orchard sitting in their white paper bags in the kitchen. Apple pie. And oh the leaves, the smell of the leaves. All the reds and golds and oranges. It doesn't get much better than fall in the Adirondacks.In the past, I'd get awfuly nostalgic around this time of year as colleges and high schools started classes up again, putting yet another year between me and my youth. Another reminder of a time past when friends were plentiful and responsibilities few. Now, it's not so bad. Now I get excited about the return of prime time TV. Sweaters and pumpkin pancakes. And Halloween. Oh, how I love Halloween.
