I look forward to fall a little more each year.

I look forward to fall a little more each year., a photo by speckled_beckle on Flickr.

I love fall and everything it brings with it.

Well, ok, most of what it brings with it.

For example, I love the cooler temperatures and the hoodies, hot cocoa, and bonfires it brings along with it. I don't mind the moisture that fall also brings to my area. (Yes, even the random snow day is fine with me.)

I also love the smells that fall brings. The drying leaves, the cooler more humid air, the first wisps of chimney smoke... Ah, lovely. (Another scent I associate with fall is diesel exhaust on the cool morning air. It reminds me of the time when I was in school and would wait for the bus on my rural street.)

I also love how it is a flourish of color, more fleeting than Spring but just as imminent. One has all of Spring and the following Summer to capture the beauty of flowers, but after leaves change to orange, and then successively to brown, they fall to the ground and their delicate bones get trampled underfoot.

It all makes the loveliness of fall that much more beautiful.

Of course, the thing I do not like about fall is that which is most inevitable: that winter will undoubtedly follow.
While winter is beautiful, and encourages me to wear lovely sweaters and drink more hot tea and cocoa, sometimes the cold just gets annoying.

Ah, well.

I welcome each season as it comes, camera in hand.

Welcome, Fall! I have been expecting you.