Fall Is Just Around The Corner!
Fall! While it’s still a few weeks off, it’s a great time to start thinking about this amazing time of year. Days will still be warm with bright sunshine, while the sun sets earlier and the nights turn cool. Leaves are begging to change into their stunning yellows , bright oranges and rustic browns and gently find a resting place below the branches where they have lived all summer.
The occasional smell of an early morning fireplace taking the edge off the brisk morning, intermingled with the damp, cool, earthy scent to start your day is a reminder that a change is in the air. Warming around the campfire in the evening toasting s’mores creating memories is still another reminder that the earth is preparing for its annual rest.
Putting the Garden to Rest
It’s time to ready the garden for rest, as well, so that when spring returns, new growth can resume in earnest. Removing left over tall weeds before they go to seed, pruning, removing summer annuals, raking and collecting fallen leaves to use as a nutritious mulch over flower beds and garden boxes is a great way to spend a nice afternoon. Evaluating what plants worked and what didn’t, planting fall bulbs for beautiful color in the spring along with veggies that could make it over the winter months, are more pleasant ways to spend time outdoors before the chilly wind drives you inside.
A Season of Unique Fall Possibilities
It’s a season with unique possibilities. A trip to an apple orchard to pick the delicious fruit, followed by caramel apple making, apple cider sipping, apple pies to bake and a hundred other apple dishes just waiting to be created and devoured, is a perfect example!
And those huge, beautiful, orange pumpkins! A trip to a pumpkin patch is just the ticket to find the perfect pumpkin for carving and another for painting, and one for muffins and pies to bake. And they make beautiful Fall decorations placed on the porch for a perfect, warm invitation to guests and Halloween visitors in the not so distant future!
In addition to these traditional Fall activities, the sheer joy of watching children playing in the leaves which cover the ground, and brisk walks with camera in hand, for breath taking colors gracing the trees, while squirrels are scampering to and fro, harvesting nuts to store for winter are also ideas which can be done in groups or even in solitude.
A Special Time For Everyone
These astounding adventures are not limited to only the healthy and abled. Each of the scenes I’ve mentioned, can and should, include the disabled. What better way to insert huge doses of encouragement and positivity to anyone, than to indulge in the natural beauty that wraps around us?
A little extra effort in planning for excursions may be required to accommodate someone in a wheelchair or otherwise disabled, but the benefits are so worthwhile. And on those days when the weather isn’t conducive to being outside, carry the Fall theme inside by drinking some hot chocolate or warmed cider, while putting an autumn puzzle together. If puzzles aren’t the favorite, find a paint by number picture to paint and watch as you create your very own Fall masterpiece.
Perhaps most important is to capture the memories that only come with Fall. Small, good things encourage us to celebrate each moment as if it were our last. As we share these moments with our children and loved ones, the memories they carry over can have a profound impact on their lives. Pause and create these Fall moments to cherish!