“Use what you have, use what the world gives you. Use the first day of fall: bright flame before winter’s deadness; harvest; orange, gold, amber; cool nights and the smell of fire. Our tree-lined streets are set ablaze, our kitchens filled with the smells of nostalgia: apples bubbling into sauce, roasting squash, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider, warmth itself. The leaves as they spark into wild color just before they die are the world’s oldest performance art, and everything we see is celebrating one last violently hued hurrah before the black and white silence of winter.”

shauna niequist | bittersweet

happy first official day of fall. while it’s certainly not boots and scarves weather yet, last night was the first night in forever that i did not have my window air conditioning unit on full blast, so baby steps, i suppose.

by now you’re all well-aware of how much i adore this time of year. give me a fur-lined vest, a pair of frye boots, and a football game and i’m a happy little camper. throw in something pumpkin or cinnamon-scented and you’ve made a friend for life.  and now with a love to spend the “ber” months with (september-december), i feel like this final quarter has an added specialness associated with it. if nothing more than i can save a lot of money on my electric bill with my own built-in heat source (and cuddler extraordinaire).

but seriously, i love the fall for the reasons shauna lists above -most notably the sense of nostalgia that arrives with the first aromas of apples and spice. i can’t help but feel as though we adopt a slower pace come autumn -we linger a little longer around the dinner table (i’m probably too full to move), hit snooze a few more times, hug our loved ones a little tighter than we usually do. there’s simply something so homey about this season.

so for that reason, and for scarves and tights and chili and cornbread and beanies and spaghetti squash being regularly available at trader joe’s, and for thanksgiving(!), i welcome fall with open arms.

soon-to-be-sweater-covered arms.

image via: pinterest.