My Favorite Season: Fall

My Favorite Season: Fall

I grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York. The seasons actually changed there. The on-set of Fall meant brisk days and mountainsides that looked as if they were painted by the watercolors of the sun: crimson, gold, rust colors flared across the horizon. It was beautiful. School would start. New classes, new teachers, new things to learn.

Macintosh apples were being picked and made into homemade apple sauce, cobblers, and pies, or just picked and eaten straight from the tree. The sweetness fumbling with the sourness made it just the perfect apple to eat, and sitting on the boughs of the tree made it the perfect setting while overlooking the town.

I love the Fall. I didn’t get the same feeling until I attended college in North Georgia. Besides it being prime college football season, the Fall is the perfect season for camping. It’s just warm enough during the day for some hiking and some camaraderie, and it’s just crisp at night to have to start a fire. The crisp air also makes it a perfect excuse to find or coerce that someone that you need to be kept warm, and maybe they could oblige?

You set up your tents ahead of time so by the time the last glowing ember of the fire has extinguished, you crawl inside. The weather is nice so no need for a rain fly. The top is open and screened, and you can make out the darkness of the sky with stars scattered across like silver confetti. The trees surrounding the tent frame the sky’s image making it one of nature’s most beautiful masterpieces.

The “someone” that you “needed” to “keep you warm” obliged and is looking up at the same thing you are…”keeping you warm” as you lie on your backs and talk about random things and everything until falling asleep, warm, in each others’ arms.