The Fall

Mowing the lawn yesterday, I thought how odd it felt to be mulching fallen red, gold, and brown leaves when it was in the 80s. Then I realized that September is more than halfway over, and fall is indeed upon us. I remember Septembers when we already had snow by now.

I love the smell of ground-up dried leaves. It makes me want to take long barefoot hikes in the woods, the cool earth blanketed with crisp leaves that crunch underfoot. The best walks are in the fall, when it's just cool enough to need a light jacket. The bugs are mostly gone, and the wildlife is out on their final forages before winter. The flowers of spring and summer have turned to dried seeds, some strange and alien in their design. (I have a small collection of unusual seeds I've picked up on my walks.) The air has the scent of life reversing, of vegetation feeding the earth in preparation for the spring metamorphasis. The earth becomes alive and overflows its energy into me through my feet.

The smell of autumn also gives me the urge to put my Halloween decorations up. I really wish I could afford some of the goodies for sale here. Namely the $8,500 attack alligator.

There is a company--I forget what it's called--that sells full-size replicas of movie monsters cast from the original molds. Among other things, you can get a 8' alien (or a 12' alien queen). I always wanted to get the alien and hide it up in the tree that stands in direct line with my front door, across the sidewalk. I would have it connected to a series of lines and pulleys, so when the kids were at my door I could tug on a cord and have it silently drop down behind them. Yes, I'm evil, and loving every minute of it.