FALL

It is my favorite season of the year....although I have strong affinities for them all.  I did not always love it, though.  In fact I viewed it only as a stepping stone to ....taadaaaa- Christmas!  That is until one day in 1989, while I was homeschooling my children, I asked Tommy if we (my mom and I) could take the boys on a history tour of New England, including Jamestown and Williamsburg and of course that great historical monument, the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  To my surprise, he said "yes".  Yes!  We were going on a trip!

All of the sights we saw were amazing.  I fell in love with Jamestown.  If you have never been, you are really missing something.  It is a small island, actually - connected by a wooden bridge to..well, us.  It is hard to believe that people came and settled there, built big stone buildings, worshiped there and died there. All of the things I read about in my school books happened in such a tiny place.  (This statement reminds me that there is another tiny place, relatively speaking, where one man lived a perfect life that changed the world and continues to do so 2000 years later.)  Hmmm  maybe I should have titled this "Tiny Places"...it seems I have wandered a bit.

Anyway, far and above any of the places we saw, the most impressive to me was what our Creator did with His creation. Have you EVER been to New England in the fall? Nothing compares with the beauty of it. NOTHING. As we neared the north, the leaves began to show their brightest colors just for me. The orange ones, the salmon-colored ones, the rusts, the yellows and the lime greens.  I could hardly breathe.  I began to stop at odd places, jumping out and gathering leaves to press in anything I could find in the car....magazines, journals, even the road map.  I bought clear contact paper to preserve them in.  I tried desperately to keep all those colors alive, but they have faded over the years. 

All of this to say that I will be writing about the fall for a few entries more.  It is just beginning and though Texas doesn't produce the splendour of New England's maples, we have our own little display of color.  Notice the tallowwood and the Bradford pear trees.  They put on a pretty good show come November.

I, of course, have my own display of autumn beauty...in my house.  I am often asked in mid summer, "Do you have your fall stuff out yet?"  They say it with a smile, but the truth is they are wanting to come and see my house transformed.  I tell them it makes me feel cooler....and happier!