Fall Fever

It's September 3rd and I am getting fall fever! Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the crisp air, the fall color as the leaves change and chrysanthemums bloom, the full moon on a cold night, the fields being harvested. However, we don't get that sort of fall here in So. Cal. What passes for fall is not the type of fall I am used to. I grew up in a central Pennsylvania farming community - you can't get a much better fall than that. I know New England claims to have the best fall, but I beg to differ. I've lived in 5 states and PA still has the best fall of anywhere!

Here in San Diego the weather in September and October is hot and the Santa Anna winds tend to blow, especially inland where the pumpkin patch is located. These photos were taken here in CA. In the first photo above (2005), it was 96 degrees that day! My poor child dressed in a sweatshirt. What a bad mom. In the second photo (2006), it was 88 degrees that day! They wore shorts and T-shirts. (My mothering had improved.) Last year we did not go to the pumpkin patch due to the forest fires raging around the county. Around here, you must buy your pumpkin and carve it on Halloween day, otherwise it will melt and rot as it's too warm for it to last. It does not get very cool here at night; so no crisp nights for us in October!

Our house is surrounded with palm trees and some sort of tree that has leaves that do not change color. So no fall color for me. There is a street nearby that is lined with maple trees. But they don't change color until almost January!

So that I don't sound like I hate it here (which I do NOT) it stays pretty close to 76 degrees year round. So when some of you are scraping ice off your windshield with a credit card and shoveling 5 feet of new snow, I'm sitting in the back yard, with my feet up, dressed in a T-shirt, drinking lemonade!

But, oh, I miss the Autumns of yesterday. If So. Cal. could figure out a way to import a proper fall, it would indeed be paradise on earth!

- Gloria