Fall is HERE

So Saturday, it rained and rained, all morning long. It was cold. It was dreary. I had a lovely time shopping with my dear friend and spending too much money. When I came home, we all snuggled on the couch under blankets, drinking too many cups of tea.

And then, suddenly, the sky was blue and brilliant, the sun was SHINING, and snuggling under blankets drinking tea seemed kind of dumb.

So we went for a walk, and we took the boy’s bike, so he could get some energy out, as he likes to say.

You know that thing where you’re supposed to catch a falling leaf, and then it’s really autumn? Well, I told my guys, and we had to make a game of it, of course. A game which I lost and Daddy won. Such is the way of games in our family. Sigh.

Chad caught FOUR leaves, and I caught ZERO. Fall has REALLY begun for him, but alas, I am stuck in summer still. Apparently forever. He did soak his foot in a puddle catching one, though, which is only right and just.

It was perfect out there.

We made an exciting discovery further up the trail: an apple tree, loaded with gorgeous apples, just SITTING there, between the trail and the gold course. It was Nobody’s tree, and so it is Everyone’s. We began our plotting to get some apples. First, Chad walked around to the golf course side to see if they were any lower over there. No dice, so he came back and we considered. There was a deep ditch full of rainwater protecting the tree like a moat from our side, and it was surrounded by drunken yellow jackets sucking on the fallen apples dotting the ground.

So Chad picked up a fallen apple and chucked it up into the tree, and he hit an apple down! I had my pocket knife, so we cut out the wormy spots, and chowed down. It was DELICIOUS. Then he got another one, and we felt very rich.

Finally, to rub salt into my wounds, Chad found a lovely tree full of golden leaves, stood under it and said, hands outstretched: “Come to me, golden leaves!” (In a deep, weird voice, I might add.) AND A LEAF FELL INSTANTLY INTO HIS HANDS!

I crowned him the King of Autumn, because apparently the leaf fairies have chosen him.