Falling...

My office closed early at noon today for the holiday. Labor Day

weekend - the weekend signalling the end of summer, the last chance to go to the pool before they close till Spring, having a final cookout and hanging out on the deck before cleaning up the grill and putting away the patio furniture, vacations are over and kids are back in school.

Many people mourn that summer is ending - especially the kids! But not me - I love fall, it's my favorite time of year. There's a feeling in the air, a crispness - the muggy stickiness of August goes away, it's cool in the evenings and mornings yet still warm during the day. Perfect evenings for sitting around a firepit or bonfire. Time to break out the jackets and sweaters.

Fall means my gardens are full of color (and the weeding is coming to an end - yay!). Spring flowers have their own appeal, but they seem so fragile, pastel-colored and short-lived. Flowers of the fall are bright, bold and hardy as hell. My perennials begin to display their structure as they drop the petals and foliage and show what they're really made of. The vegetable garden has produced a few zucchini and some cucumbers over the summer, and now with fall upon us all that remains is a veritable plethora (yes, plethora - look it up if you don't know it, it's a great word) of cherry tomatoes!

Of course fall brings college football, and with it the Saturday "tailgate" parties at friends' houses. As an OSU alum, the sound of the best damn marching band is music to my ears, and watching as they perform Script Ohio and the dotting of the "i" always makes me smile. When the team takes the field in that beautiful old stadium overflowing with scarlet and gray, they'll kick off another great football season. If all goes well, we'll be watching and cheering them on - hearing neighbors and friends shouts of "O-H," we'll answer with the requisite "I-O" - till the victory bell rings and the team sings Carmen Ohio on the field after the game.

Other bonuses of fall? The colorful leaves as they change and drop from the trees, pesky bugs start to die off, grass mowing comes to an end, my husband and I both celebrate our birthdays, and daylight savings time ends giving us a bonus hour of sleep.

It's obvious - I fell in love with Fall!