PROMPT QUESTION No 4: FAVOURITE SEASON(S)... Fall

For the past few weeks, I've been writing (privately) on Prompt Questions for "The Book of Me".  Click on the link for more information; perhaps you might want to follow along.
  - Prompt Question No 1:  Who Am I?  (20 answers)
  - Prompt Question No 2:  My Birth  (8 answers, details)
  - Prompt Question No 3:  My Physical Self (i.e., as of now; many details)
And here is No 4, Favourite Season(s), and I decided to share this particular one: Fall or Autumn, if you prefer... [check link for Canadian preference(s)]

Sweater-weather!  Yeah!!

There’s something refreshing and inspirational about Fall in Vancouver, BC, with fresh air, cool nights, warm days in the sunshine, deciduous trees turning colours and dropping their leaves: Autumn - or Fall - as I always knew it.

The time to put away my freshly cleaned and folded summer clothes with a smile, and pull out the sweaters, long-sleeved t-shirts, some with turtlenecks, plus the sweatshirts and warmer pants.  Turquoise, purple, black, red – strong colours are for Fall, somehow.  My whole body is covered with warm soft toasty clothing.  Oh, and I’d better put that blanket back on my bed, between the duvet and top sheet.  Warm.  Ummmm.

The perfect weather to sit in my big chair with an afghan or stole I crocheted tossed over my legs as I read another book, drinking hot tea, or occasionally, hot chocolate, while the furnace hums quietly in the background. 

No more hearing the loud whines of lawnmowers and leaf-blowers working up and down the block every single weekend.  Ah, quiet.  Well, except for those new-home builders down the block, racing to finish the outside and roof before the truly heavy rains come in a few weeks.  

I sit at my desk by the south and west-facing windows and watch the huge weeping willow just down the block, as it now turns from beautiful green to yellow and brown, dropping leaves off its long drooping branches.  A gorgeous tree to watch at any time of the year.  A few maple and birch trees along the streets are dropping dry leaves to crunch underfoot – a lovely sound.  The dry crunch doesn’t last long – soon it will be the swish of wet leaves underfoot, or perhaps splashing through puddles – my all-time favourite activity with any young children/grandchildren.  Splish-Splash!! Yeah!!  Let’s do it again!!

This fall photo (copyrighted) was taken in Falaise Park in the far eastern side of Vancouver, by my brother, Jake Gillespie, a realtor with a passion for photography.  We lived over to the right of the photo.

Fresh BC-grown apples and other fruits are on show at all the produce stores, spilling over their displays.  Nothing is like the bite into a fresh apple.  A family one block over has a lovely apple tree in their front yard, and after I’d been chatting to them for a moment on my way home from the library, they handed me a big bag of apples!  Ambrosia – no, that wasn’t the apple type, it was a type of Delicious, and it tasted like both!

I’m watching my carrots and parsnips slowly growing thicker in the garden, and happily snipping more parsley and chives, putting the last tomatoes on the window sill to finish ripening.  Our winters are usually so mild that many herbs keep growing through the winter.

Fall.  The start of a serious season, somehow.  Time to hunker down, pull up my boots, and get to work – whatever that work is that I’m making to-do lists for.  Serious goals, serious thoughts, enough play time.  Oh, the Ant and the Grasshopper syndrome – I read Aesop’s tale too often perhaps.

This morning, it's raining, and the wind is tearing any loose dead leaves, sending them flying down the street. It will be raining even more very soon.  Pacific storms come regularly: the “Pineapple Express” from the Pacific Ocean, dumping rain on each mountain range it meets.  But even when it rains heavily, there’s often an hour or so of lighter rain or no rain.  And, really, it’s only water.  Good boots, warm socks, a sweater, and a Gore-Tex type waterproof jacket with a hood, and I can go anywhere, anytime.  I usually don’t bother with an umbrella.  I know I have one somewhere in that closet, but don’t need it. 

Fall!  My favourite season indeed.  Comfort - in so many ways - comes with Fall.