Van Gogh's Autumn LandscapeNot that I'm rushing things, but I already have my Halloween candy. Summer is finally dying; I'd love to give it helping hand, maybe using my newly acquired poisoner's handbook. Hate summer.
I'm one of those people we used to call DPs back in the day — displaced persons, usually from another country upon which we were firing and vice versa. I'm a DP from Boston and other NE states where they really know how to do fall.
By the time the honeycrisp apples (the state fruit of Minnesota, where they also know fall) get to California, they're less honeyed and less crisp. Forget Macintosh, too.
I make the best of it.
1. I make sure I have a class starting when everyone else is going back to school. Yesterday I taught the first of 4 parts of a writing workshop. Even though there's no rustle of leaves, I pretend it's like the falls I remember.
2. I eat lots of orange- and brown-wrapped candy and pumpkin ice cream, as a substitute for apples. I also buy cranberries, though I seldom use them. I keep bags of cranberries in stock for aesthetic purposes.
3. I put away my whites on Labor Day, of course. Who wants to mess with Kathleen Turner, anyway?
4. I look at "fall in art" as much as possible. Here's Sargent's Autumn.
5. I change my computer desktop. Here's the new one:
Central Park, NYC. Notice the Met up there on 5th!No less a light than P. D. James thinks that our memories are more perfect than the reality. She wrote (edited for American audiences): "It was one of those perfect autumn days, which occur more frequently in memory than in life."
But when I do get a chance to see/smell/taste/touch/hear fall in person, it's as rich as I remember.
Do you think your mind plays tricks with memories?
A fall prize to someone who shares!
6 comments:
I love the long days, but didn't have much of a summer here in Western Washington, and there is now faint color in a few leaves and a damp chill in the evening. It reminds me of the Catskill Mountain autumns of my childhood. I miss those vivid maples and the golden birches. The sweet gum trees in my yard do their best, but it's not the same.
I love the long days but we didn't have much of a summer here in Western Washington and now there's faint color in random leaves and a damp chill in the evenings. This is the time of year when I miss the Catskill Mountains and the glorious displays of color from maples and birches.
And, thanks to the fact that I'm a substitute teacher, I've already been back to school - so fall is real to me.
(Sorry if this is a repeated post, technology isn't my friend today.)
I guess I'm a DP, too. When I think of fall, I think of midwest fall. There is a tree near my place in Chicago which has leaves that turn such a bright yellow, it's like looking at sunshine.
The Catskills! Now, there's a fall scene!
And also Chicago, Betty. I'll bet that tree is magnificent all year round.
I live in Ohio and Autumn is my favorite season. I love to go for walks once the weather is cooler and I look better in a sweatshirt than a tank top! I can't resist purchasing school supplies from displays, even though my youngest is 25. :( My fall "trigger" is smells. Unfortunately leaf burning is outlawed; it was so much fun to rake huge piles for the dads to ignite when I was a kid. Now neighbors have those above ground "fire rings" and I can enjoy the smokey smells when crusing the neighborhood.
Funny, Miss Merry -- I love school supplies also, and who doesn't look better (and feel more comfy) in a sweatshirt!
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