The First Sign of Fall

Fall is my favorite season,* and summer my least favorite. Thus, when fall comes around, I'm pretty excited.

It snuck up on me today while eating an ordinary gala apple.** Throughout the summer, I usually stay far away from apples; they're not in season, and have no flavor. But, I decided to risk buying apples this morning at the store, and my choice turned out to be a good one. With the first bite, the taste of fall awakened my taste buds.

Now we just need global warming to call it quits throughout the country and allow fall to gently nudge summer back under the rug for awhile.

*This is true for a variety of wonderful reasons: I love the scent of smoke in the air, and the coolness that invites you to curl up in a warm sweater; fall always signalled the beginning of school, and thus brought anticipation of new things to come, in the form of new friends and new knowledge; my birthday is in the fall, and birthdays are the one day in the year that belong just to you; the fall colors in certain parts of the country can rival any beautiful, fresh spring day (although spring is my second favorite season); I like the clarity and crispness of fall - haze seems to melt away with the cooling temperatures, and clear blue erupts above us; lastly, I like feeling the knawing feeling of nostalgia in the fall, like something wonderful is always right around the corner, but that you've already found it long ago and can't remember exactly what it was.
**I have to admit that I'm somewhat of an apple snob. When I was little, my family lived on an acre of land with a small apple orchard in the front, in an idyllic little town, and I got spoiled on the most amazing apple I've ever tasted: the Gravenstein. Unfortunately, Gravenstein's don't stay crisp for a long time, and thus can't be shipped to many places without becoming mushy, so most people have never tasted one, and I don't get to eat them nearly as often as I would like. (For the record, I know that sentence is a run-on, but I'm feeling daring today.) Check out the link, though...Gravenstein's rock!!!