I’ve been neologizing this week. I have, several times now, tried to type glorious or gorgeous and keep coming out with glorgious, so I have decided it should be a word that supersedes both gorgeous and glorious in awesome. That’s what the weather has been this week. Glorgious.
A cold front came through on Tuesday and plunged us into right at freezing night temps and low 60s day temps and it’s been so fantastic. I wore GLOVES and a SWEATER. We actually turned on the heat at night. I had porridge for breakfast yesterday. And the big oak tree down the street turned gold and started shedding its leaves.
But it’s actually not fall yet here in Mississippi. This is just a preview. We’ll be back to the 80s next week.
No, fall here hasn’t truly fallen until the sugar maple down the street (I have serious tree envy of my neighbors) turns flame red. That’s when we know the temps have gotten chilly and will stay that way. That’s when we’ll start to scent fireplace smoke and the chill bite to the air nips at your nose and ears. That’s when I’ll haul out all of my coats (I have a ludicrous number of them–with some women it’s shoes, for me it’s coats) and gloves and scarves and cute hats. This one is a favorite:
Fall means soups and stews and CHILI. All sorts of warm, rich, delicious foods that stick to your ribs for winter. It means THANKSGIVING (favorite meal of the year) and Egg Bowl (the annual battle between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Ole Miss Rebels–and I don’t give a damn what a bunch of yankee board members say–we are still the Rebels–Black Bears my ass. You will not find a single piece of “Black Bear” merchandise ANYWHERE in the state of Mississippi, and we’re working on getting it on the general election ballot next year to bring Col. Reb back).
Fall means the end to open toed shoes and the beginning of BOOTS. It means happy, prancing pooches (my girls love the chilly weather) and a blessed end to Daylight Savings Time. It’s my absolute favorite time of year.
What are your favorite signs of fall?
6 thoughts on “Glorgious: Signs of Fall”
I think you covered most of my favorites here, Kait! I love the brisk air and all the cute hats and boots, cuddling up in warm fuzzy sweaters and the fact that my cats are more likely to cuddle than before, especially at night. All the great warms soups and hot cider. Ohgod. Hot cider. And I’m particularly excited for the leaves to change colors now since we’re on the second floor apartment, where we’re right on level with the trees, so the whole place will be surrounded by all the golds and reds and oranges!
Autumn is easily, easily my favorite season, yes!
Yes, yes, and triple yes! It’s finally dropped into the low 80s and high 70s here in Houston — which is awesome for us, but I SO can’t wait for it to get down to the 60s — and I have been ecstatic! I’m counting down the days to boot-weather. And I’ve already pulled my trenchcoat out from the back of the closet. And pumpkin spice coffee is once again available at Starbucks, which is another one of my favorite things.
I just wish I was still in Kansas for the apple cider donuts. No one in TX even seems to know what they ARE, let alone where I can find some. And I’m desperate for apple cider donuts! *sobs*
I used to love summer better than any season. But as I get older, and ESPECIALLY after this horribly hot summer, fall is looking great to me. Your weather sounds exactly like mine. We had that cold spell, too. When it gets cold at night like this, I get to bring our outside dog inside for the night. He loves that! Of course, like you said, it’s going to warm back up next week. But I got to wear boots one day this week! And I carved a pumpkin, too! 🙂
Fall is my favorite time of year for photography. I led a PhotoWalk in Algonquin Park, Ontario on October 1. I woke up to snow flurries that morning but it cleared and became a a beautiful sunny day. It was glorgious! The hardwood forest, maple, oak, birch, aspen, was in peak fall color. Lito, one of the hikers with me, posted some of his pictures on flickr at www [dot] flickr [dot] com/photos/jj8rock/. His photos are the ones uploaded October 4 and labelled ‘Algonquin’. The next day, October 2, we had heavy winds and rain that blew all the leaves from the treetops. Now it’s all on the ground.
I live in Barrie, Ontario, about a hundred miles south of the park. The colors were about a week later than Algonquin. We still have some color in the smaller maples protected by the tall white pines but it’s mostly gone as well. Another week and we’ll have nothing left.
We usually get our first dusting of snow here before Hallowe’en and then a heavy snowfall in mid November that will still be on the ground next April. My dog, Mason, a golden retriever, has already grown his winter coat and I’ve got my snowshoes ready for our first winter outing.
Oh! So jealous. We rarely get much in the way of fall color down here because we tend to have these loooooong stretches of warm that don’t lend themselves to really shocking the color out. But right now it’s just lovely.
When my Autumn Blaze maple turns crimson red. The dogwoods in the back turn red a bit too early, but when the oaks start going, I know. The grass starts to go to sleep as well (Bermuda grass).
It’s in the high sixties this week here in NE Georgia, with overnight lows in the upper forties.
Fall is my favorite time of the year. Every year, we take a trip up to North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Parkway to see the leaves. This year, we spent the day in Maggie Valley.