Fall Walks — All the Feels

I love fall as it is called in my area of the world — autumn for others. It’s my favorite season with cooling temperatures, reduced humidity, all things from the harvest to eat including pumpkins, apples, butternut squash and more. I love the smell of smoke from fireplace conflagrations, snuggly sweaters, fuzzy socks, hot tea added to my coffee routine, professional football games, Halloween, Thanksgiving and more.

One of my favorite things about fall is the ability to walk my pups without coming home sweat-drenched. This year, it is still hot in eastern Virginia, but the cool breezes help make up for it.

Besides the exercise my dogs and I get from the walks, I enjoy crunching leaves and acorn caps underfoot. I love the sound and the “feels” of the crunchiness underfoot.

Some leaves have a loud, satisfying crunch; some emit a brittle, glass-breaking-like frizzle; and some are too wet to crunch leading to an out-of-balance disappointment on my part. The pretty ones? I take them home to place in a bowl until they fade.

When the days have been dry, the leaf crunching is at its finest and the acorn caps are fun too. The bigger the caps the better.

Of course, there are drawbacks to this activity. Personally — miss-stepping when I try to match my pace to land a foot on an upcoming crunchy object. Another drawback, unless you think I don’t realize it, this makes for messier cleanup for the homeowner’s road front. I know this, but still cannot help myself.

On a different note: aren’t the trees gorgeous as they change colors? If you don’t live in a climate where they do, I highly recommend visiting New England in the US during leaf-changing time around the October/November timeframe!

What are your favorite things about fall? Please share in the comments below so we can all have new ideas to maximize this season’s enjoyment.

Happy Fall,

Cathy