I love living somewhere with four seasons. Winter is an acquired taste, and spring feels like winter for quite a while, but fall is often lovely. There are summery days but cooler mornings and nights. Then, in late October, all the overgrown greenery turns bright yellow, orange, and red and the world is just extravagantly colorful. I’m also a big fan of fall flowers: Sunflowers, asters, zinnias, mums. There’s something so unexpectedly beautiful about blue asters or violet zinnias against the red/orange/yellow scheme of fall.

Of course, while fall is beautiful it is also fleeting. By mid-November, the leaves will be on the ground, leaving just the silhouettes of trees — visible for vanishingly few hours of the day as the sun sets by 5 p.m.

So…with that somewhat dreary thought in mind, here are a few things I want to do to really enjoy autumn while I can.

Visit New England…twice! I’ll go to Maine in early October for work. Then in later October my husband and I are going to a destination half-marathon. In both cases, the leaves should be about at peak. My running time may be atrocious if I’m constantly pausing to take photos of leaves! Of course, given the half marathon, I plan to…

Run long. Now is the time to be doing it, with the temperatures in a range that makes miles feel good. I hope to scope out a few new places to run (like within a 5-10 minute drive) as my neighborhood is non-ideal in some ways.

Bike. At least solo, but hopefully as a family at some point since we bought the extra bike.

Hike. Also, at least one longer walk in the fall leaves.

Visit a botanical garden. Possibly Chanticleer or Longwood, or both. People think of going to gardens in the spring, but professional gardeners can really make the fall flowers shine, and with the trees being colorful the visuals should be even more spectacular. I also want to do a picnic at Stoneleigh, given that it’s not that far from my house, and is free and open to the public during the day.

Go apple picking. We need to get on this as the kinds of apples I like (like Honeycrisp) tend to be best now, rather than during the usual October/Fall Fest times. I feel like apple cider donuts should also be involved.

Watch a football game. Probably just on TV, though other members of my family will be going to some live.

Take family photos. We’re actually doing this in a studio in late September, so it won’t be autumnal themed, but it’s something I like to do in fall so we have photos available for our Christmas cards. Doing this will not be “fun,” but I want to have done it. So, onto the fall fun list it goes.

Enjoy BLP Live! I’m headed to Ft. Lauderdale in November, and co-hosting this year as lots of us plan 2025 together. I’m looking forward to yoga on the beach.

Listen to Vivaldi’s “Autumn” part of the Four Seasons. Also, I will write some autumn-themed sonnets.

In other news: A little content round-up for the week….Over at Vanderhacks (my Substack newsletter) my piece behind the paywall was “Laura’s list of easy thrills” — 31 quick, cheap ways to add joy to your life. One of the freebies was to “Build a time emergency fund.” If you enjoy this blog you’ll probably enjoy the newsletter as well, so please consider a (free or paid) subscription.

Over at the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community we’ve been discussing managing household employees’ time, how we’ve spent anniversaries (I celebrated my 20th wedding anniversary this week), and task management tools. Membership is $9/month, which gets you access to the discussion forum and monthly Zoom meet-ups (always recorded for folks who can’t make it).

The Before Breakfast podcast covered “How to keep your summer spirit,” and I recommended that you “Don’t decorate with cereal boxes.” Basically, anything someone can see is part of the decor, even if you don’t always see it!

So it goes. This tree’s glowing red and the magnolia in the front yard’s showy pink spring blossoms last for just a week or so each year. Whatever else is going on, I know I need to stop and notice them. Savor them for a few days in April and November. This year this savoring has had more poignancy to it as we will be living in our new house for the spring blossoms. There are going to be beautiful ones there. I walked a row of late blooming cherry trees, for instance, and once we start taking care of the place it will blossom. I know there are fiery trees there for autumn, too. But we come to know “our” trees and their rhythms and this year I am saying goodbye to these.

Anyway, it has been a long week, with much interrupted sleep. The toddler has been clingy and unhappy (the interrupted sleep isn’t good for him either, even if he’s causing the problem!). But the kids’ activities are winding down, so this weekend should, theoretically, be more relaxed. I sorted through some kid clothes and found size 12 jeans for the 12-year-old. I also found a pair of *my* jeans tucked in that same pile, which I guess had been missing for a while. Since it’s raining today, the workmen aren’t working on my neighbor’s roof, so I can get ahead on recording. I will take these little wins!