I have a love/hate relationship with the fall season. It is my favorite season in Minnesota because of the changing colors and scenery. Harvest times are special watching the farmers gathering their crops and gardeners, the produce from their gardens. Apple trees full of apples begging to picked and made into cider, pies, and apple crisp. I love how certain flowers in my garden are most beautiful in the fall like my Hydrangea.
I love the cool crisp mornings and the fresh air. I am energized by the aisles of school supplies. I always loved the start of the school season especially when I graduated college and started teaching school. Setting up my classroom with a theme for the fall and for open house was always a highlight. I loved meeting my new students and watching them wander around the classroom to see what there was to look at and finding their desk for the first day of school.
While I love the changing colors of the trees, hillsides and flowers it only reminds me all too soon of the shorter days and the colder temperatures to come. All too soon I will be leaving for work in the dark and returning home from work in the dark. The shorter days seem to take my energy with them.
We live by a lake and it is always a sad thing to remove the dock, boat lift, and boat from the lake each fall. Each year we help my Dad take his sailboat out of the lake as well. Too many summers we have helped put his boat in the lake in the spring without ever taking the time to go for a ride before it is time to take it out in the fall.
I love sleeping with the windows open listening to the frogs in the nearby pond or the waves lapping against the shore and the call of the loons as I drift off to sleep. Fall nights turn too cold too soon and it is time to close the windows at night and close out my favorite sounds as well.
It’s been four years since I quit teaching. The workshop days at school and teachers talking about preparing their classrooms make me long for my classroom and bright smiling faces of the students entering the classroom eager to learn.
This fall is different than past 25 years. No students in my home, no classroom for teaching and no students to watch grow over the course of a year.
I could always go stock up on school supplies for old times sake.
Flying Gma's Blog 
Thomas Stazyk
August 31, 2011 at 12:11 am
I know exactly what you mean–fall was a favorite season but knowing that summer was over and winter was coming definitely gave me a love/hate relationship.
Hope you are enjoying your peace and quiet!
flyinggma
August 31, 2011 at 6:28 am
It’s hard to get out of bed when it is dark so late every morning. I know I would not do well in Alaska when it’s darker even more hours than here.
Meanderer
August 31, 2011 at 5:36 am
Beautiful image which captures the contrast between light and dark perfectly. It’s the changing light levels which affect me the most at this time of year, and so many memories of years gone by imprinted especially deep because of the association with the return to school from my childhood and my children’s childhood to the more recent happy days when I worked in schools. It must be something to do with patterns and routines which we partly dislike but also grudgingly need. Maybe.
flyinggma
August 31, 2011 at 6:33 am
Thank you Meanderer. My Hydrangea has gone wild this year. It’s larger than it has ever been and more blossoms than I can remember in past years.
The changing light levels are a difficult thing. I need light for energy for sure otherwise I tend to get lethargic.
When I left my home yesterday morning for work in my mind I recalled my four kids with backpacks on their backs walking down the driveway towards the bus stop like they did for so many years but they were not their grownup bodies but stuck in time from about 15 years ago when my youngest started Kindergarten. That was another life changing year when they were all in school all day for the first time.
dhphotosite
August 31, 2011 at 11:09 am
Fall is my favorite time of year also. Since hurricane Irene blew through here and flushed out summer we are really getting a taste of Fall. Super cool evenings and cooler crisper days. AHHH
flyinggma
August 31, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Hope you and yours are fine after the hurricane. We are waiting to hear the condition of a couple of cars that we purchased in NJ before the hurricane have faired. The truckers haven’t been able to pick them up for us yet to know if they were in flooded areas or not. We were told that they were moved to higher ground before the hurricane but conditions can and do change.
Kim Reynolds
August 31, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Beautiful post. I say at least buy some pens. There’s nothing better than new pens.
flyinggma
August 31, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Nothing beats new pens for sure. Try to hang on to a favorite one around home or the office is near impossible. Thanks for stopping by Kim!
nrhatch
August 31, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Closing up pools, removing docks, winterizing campers, taking boats out of the water . . . just thinking about them makes me sad.
I would cry putting away my flip flops and shorts for the winter. I hated bundling up in sweaters and jackets after the freedom of the summer months.
In short . . . I’m glad we moved south. 😀
flyinggma
August 31, 2011 at 3:57 pm
I hate having to actually wear shoes and socks. Barefoot is best not to mention no coats. May have to chase some of that wonderful Florida sunshine again this winter.
nrhatch
August 31, 2011 at 4:11 pm
C’mon down! 😀
flyinggma
August 31, 2011 at 5:36 pm
We will give you a call if we are passing your way 🙂
Carl D'Agostino
August 31, 2011 at 6:25 pm
apples- love them. Think I’ll make some apple cobbler this weekend
flyinggma
August 31, 2011 at 7:07 pm
I love apple cobbler. One of my favorite things to do with my kindergarten class was to take them to a local apple orchard and they would see how apple cider was made and then they would get to taste some and take an apple or two home.
pattisj
August 31, 2011 at 11:36 pm
I like the fall temperatures, but not that it leads to winter. I remember those short days, when the best hours were spent cooped up in a building, only to be released by the time clock. We have ‘almost’ the right amount of time for winter here in Virginia, but sometimes it lasts too long for me. We tend to joke around when we see someone in shorts here in winter, saying, “They must be from Minnesota!” 🙂
flyinggma
September 1, 2011 at 8:16 am
I love how you put “the best hours were spent cooped up in a building, only to be released by a time clock”
That is exactly how I felt when I was teaching. I loved my students but longed to be outside. I should have pursued an outdoor teaching job just with not such a cold winter.
I do tend to wear shorts and sandles or go barefoot longer than most. Not wanting to give into the colder season but as I get older I seem to be dressing warmer sooner than I used to in past years.
planejaner
September 1, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Jeanne–
your photograph is stunning, as always.
I love/hate the change in seasons too…so much about it calls out to me..but I don’t love the darkness.
School starts next Wednesday…another year begins.
blessings, friend
jane
Patti
September 9, 2011 at 3:07 pm
The only thing I really miss about living in the northeast or midwest is fall – all the good stuff like leaves and cool air. Here in southern cal, it means high winds and hot weather, which together mean fire. But it also means rain, which is always a pleasant surprise after 6 months or so of completely dry weather.
flyinggma
September 10, 2011 at 8:26 am
I could give up the fall weather here for the year round California weather. I’d just have to plan a visit back here in the fall to take in the colors.