it's raining

and I love it!

Yesterday, it was 60 degrees, and today it's supposed to be near that again.

Lovely! (Meant with all sincerity, no sarcasm here today)

I get to wear my uber-cool new rain boots.

The kids get to use their umbrellas, which is always fun.

The tree in my backyard is covered with moss. So is the rock in the front yard.

I really want to get outside, and hook up the rain barrel and put up the clothes line and clean out the garden and order my seeds and sell the castle and clean out the sandbox and and and

The list is a mile long, but I don't care. I love being outside, and can't wait until I can leave the windows open all the time and play in the dirt and have totally dirty kids that need showers every night.

Can you tell I REALLY want spring to make it's appearance.

falling into fall

I love the arrival of fall, probably as much as I enjoy the arrival of spring. Each brings out the best of a variety of things, and I find myself looking forward to the arrival of each season more each year. It's not that I don't enjoy winter and summer, because I do, but spring and fall are much more appreciated around here for some reason.

With the arrival of fall, I get:

• waking up in a cold bedroom, and grabbing a pair of socks immediately
• watching my burning bushes in the backyard turn a glorious shade of red
• cooking with pumpkin - bars, muffins, bread, cake - all of it yum!
• the leaves are starting to turn from green to golds, reds, oranges and browns
• crunch crunch crunch as we walk to and from school
• heavy foods - stews, soups, casseroles - everything that was too much for summer
• jeans and sweaters
• apples and cranberries, together and apart, ready to be turned into applesauce, cranberry sauce, apple pie filling, butter and jam
  

I've already hit the pumpkin hard this week - three batches of pumpkin muffins, in addition to the two loaves of banana bread.

Even though we're having a bit of a last hurrah for summer - it's been in the upper 70's all week - the mornings have been glorious, perfect for a cup of hot coffee and a bit of a book before the day gets rolling.

Even though I know that fall comes to an end, and my least favorite weather follows, I'm glad that fall is here.