Autumn is coming

This is the best sort of day. It feels like fall; the driveway is full of acorns from our oak trees and the air is cool and smells like autumn leaves and bonfires, with a distinct hint of back-to-school supplies. Ah, the scent of a fresh notebook and new pencil shavings riding on the wind...

Fall has been my favorite season for years. For a while it was because I could wax most poetic about falling leaves and transitions and the impermanency of being. But there's more; I love the intense colors of fall leaves, the smell of people burning said leaves illegally in their backyards, the taste of fresh-picked, ripe tomatoes from our vegetable garden, and the sound of geese honking as they fly in a V-formation down to warmer climes for the winter. I don't even feel too bad about the grass dying off, or the increasing risk of frost, or all the kids that have to be rounded up from their summer frolicking and sent back to school for another nine months.

So what if the calendar says that autumn doesn't come for another month? I say, once it's September, summer's come and gone.