Buh-bye Summer! Hello Autumn!

So yeah, summer around here came and went in a flash. I’m sad about that but now that fall is here I love it. Well, mostly. What I love are the crispy, foggy mornings – I love to get cozy, have a fire, read books, wear scarves, drink hot apple cider or cocoa, breathe in the fall smells (fires, baking, and etc), pumpkins, holidays, and the list goes on.

The leaves are changing and already beginning to fall. One day, I would love to go back east during the fall, as I’ve only seen pictures. So amazingly gorgeous! I hear for some of you living in parts of Arizona and Texas, fall isn’t happening yet. Bummer. We get some fall colors around here but we have a lot of Christmas pine trees, which means a lot of green. I do live in the Evergreen State after all. However the street I live on has a lot of trees that turn colors (don’t know what kind of trees they are) and right now, they’re turning red, my fave.

Guess this means no more gardening – summer gardening anyway. Strawberries are done finally (they were d-lish while they lasted!). Sam’s been working on putting the garden to bed. There’s still the plan (hope) of a winter garden of sorts but that depends on critters. So far, they’ve enjoyed some of our seedlings and then someone else seems to have walked off with our lettuce starts. Nice. I mentioned before that we’ve got pumpkins – we’re letting them “cure” before doing anything with them. We also have neighbors still harvesting some things like zucchini and tomatoes, which they like to share with us.

We scored this zuke. Called an eight-ball.

And hey, is this a tomato bum?

Or a heart?

YS2 and his cousin Jack got some time to play together at the garden.

Look at Jack’s curls! Aren’t they so adorable?!

Hey, YS2 has some too!

Caleb loves looking at the sky just like we do so he’s always looking up at the trees, birds, and planes like this one.

Nelly reminded me about the harvest moon tonight/early a.m. so we’ll have to watch for that with YS2. He’ll love it.

Here we are enjoying the last bits of summer sunshine. Some of you have already noticed it’s my new profile pic.

On one of our walks, we spotted what I call the Skittle Tree. These little berries are small and colorful like Skittles (yeah, the candy). Not sure what they are but doubt they taste like skittles.

Moving on from all of that, I finally tried Go Raw’s original super cookies. I’ve seen these around but have ignored them. Not sure why. I think it’s the packaging honestly. But anyway, glad we picked some up to try. They’re so tasty! Even lil YS2 loved them. They’re like macaroons but flat and crispy. Great little snacks to have in your car or your bag or just to munch on while reading a book at home. :)

Thanks for the input about my question of posting of recipes. If you missed out or are wondering yourself, check out the post and feedback here. I believe in giving credit where it’s due so this was helpful to me.

So any suggestions about what to do with pumpkins? These aren’t to carve but to consume. Got any good recipes for soups, breads, cookies, etc? Doesn’t have to be raw btw. The cooler weather is here so I’m looking to fill my home with the comforting smells of pumpkin.

What's your favorite season? Mine is summer with fall a close second for reasons listed above.

Happy Autumn (or if you're in the southern hemisphere I guess this would be spring??)! Maybe I should say, enjoy whatever season you're in wherever you are!