Oughta love autumn

If you aren’t a fan of autumn, you’d better just take a little hiatus and come back in December because I have no doubt that this blog will mention fall in nearly each and every entry from here until the first stocking is hung by the chimney with care.

I crave autumn all year long and when I start feeling it approach, I am completely enthralled with it. So, you have had fair warning.

Leaves crunching beneath my feet.
A cool breeze that greets me each morning as I leave for work.
Pulling out boxes of favorite long-sleeved shirts.
Pumpkins and mums lining porch steps.
Sunday night chili.

This weekend I felt the need to have a little unofficial start to the season. So, Queen of Cool and I went to my favorite place to be each fall, my old college town. It’s where some of my favorite fall memories are kept.

One of the reasons I chose Western Kentucky University was the campus. When I started visiting colleges, it was in the fall of my senior year. I stepped out my mother’s station wagon in November 1986 and found my second home.

The ground was covered in leaves, the trees were ablaze in color. Students, backpacks in tow, were snuggled in warm sweaters rushing to class. This was academia, I thought. This is where I need to be.

I lived on campus the entire time I was at Western. It’s kinda unheard of, I know, but I really liked being there. I loved having my closest friends just a few feet away. And I loved being on campus.

The school itself has changed greatly, but it still has the charm that attracted me. I had so wanted to pull into the admissions office, sign up for classes and ask if they had some sort of housing appropriate for a 36-year-old girl who just wanted to be back here. I resisted the urge and we made a trip to another fall staple for me: Jackson’s Orchard.

The orchard is magical. It’s perched upon a hill and as you reach the crest, you are greeted with bright oranges, rusts and golds. It’s breathtaking. It’s what autumn is to me. Row after row of pumpkins line the perimeter, ready to be selected and taken home. Mums of gargantuan size are just about to bloom. A corn maze tempts the daring and a straw castle tests your imagination.

Of course some shopping, a good lunch and lots of quality conversation were sprinkled throughout our trek. It was a perfect day for me to celebrate autumn, friendships, love and nature.