It's October? Already?

Tempus fugit.

Especially this time of year. The first full week of October is over. Almost all the days on my calendar have some event, appointment, or reminder on them. How did THAT happen? Girl scouts and dentists and harvest fairs, photo appointments and fundraisers...thank goodness there's a party pencilled in as well, and I'm not hosting yet.

I love autumn. It's my favorite time of year, when the jack-o-lanterns and scarecrows and harvest wreaths go up, when the leaves crunch underfoot, and the unbearable oppression of late summer heat breaks into the kind of cool day most people would describe as crisp.

It's a gingerbread day today, I think. Under a deceptively sunny, blue sky, the air is cold. A good kind of cold. Somewhere in the neighborhood, someone is mowing his lawn for the last time of the season before the irrigation water is shut off and everyone shuts down their sprinklers for the year. It's somewhat incongruous on this gingerbread day, the distant sound of the lawnmower. It brings back almost wistful memories of spring days and the smell of damp, freshly cut grass. Almost wistful, but not quite, because today is a gingerbread day. And I love autumn.