Autumn Wonderland

In case you haven't had the pleasure of noticing, this year is particularly spectacular for fall foliage. Every walk with the dog is a sense-heightening snap-crackle-and-POP! I feel like I've stepped right into an oil painting at a museum. Really, like the city of Prague, it's a photographer's dream--everywhere I look, another gorgeous view.

We have good friends visiting this coming weekend from the city, so I'm crossing my fingers that the windy weather stays in check and keeps a lion's share of leaves on the trees for them to oooooh and aaaaaah over. They will be in swarming company. Just like my little hometown in Connecticut attracted (and still attracts) "summer people" to its beaches like ants to a picnic, this area of northeastern New Jersey is able to lure even the most jaded of city citizens over the bridges and through the tunnels, on an autumnal mission for pumpkins and freshly picked apples. Usually, we can spot the out-of-towners: They're the ones with grumpy guys holding up their girlfriends who are hobbling around the cornfield mazes and pumpkin patches in their stilettos, complaining about the mud stuck to their good shoes. News flash: Jimmy Choos and hayrides don't mix.

Saturday brought us to Hacklebarney Cider Mill for their homemade cinnamon donuts and fresh-pressed cider ($8.00 a gallon--!!!--but worth every expensive drop), followed by free "forest bathing" at Hacklebarney State Park. Forest bathing (or Shinrin-Yoku, as it's known in Japan) does not usually involve water, although my daughter did take an accidental slip off a leaf-covered stone into the stream. I swear, it's not a complete trip to Hacklebarney Park if one or both of my children doesn't take an unplanned dip!

On Sunday, my son and I picked out brand-new birdhouses to host our feathered friends through the winter. Most of our birdhouses didn't make it through last year (thanks a lot, Hurricane Sandy!). If I were a bird, I'd hope that my real estate agent would show me one of these fine properties...

I also cleared out the last of our summer greenhouse plants and moved a few lucky ones indoors to bask in the warm sunshine of the living room window.

Our scenic trips around the area this weekend reminded me that I really need to put some classical music CDs in the car, because if I were making a soundtrack for this particular fall, it would definitely include some of Bach's cello suites and Chopin's piano pieces--both perfect accompaniments for crisp days of golden leaves gently raining down with each breeze.

I also started reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to my children, which got me excited for the winter wonderland around the bend (minus that nasty White Witch). But for now, we are reveling in this autumn wonderland, which is lovelier than any words I can write at the moment, so I will end with this picture that perfectly captures our Saturday.

Your turn: What are your favorite ways to celebrate fall? (Football? Hearty soups? Cozy fires?) Please share in the Comments section below, and feel free to link to your own seasonal post. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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