Friday, August 31, 2007

Friday Five: Seasons Change...

It's Labor Day weekend here in the United States, also known as Summer's Last Hurrah. So let's say goodbye to summer and hello to the autumn. (People in other climes, feel free to adapt as needed.)

1. Share a highlight from this summer. (If you please, don't just say "our vacation to the Canadian Rockies." Give us a little detail or image. Help us live vicariously through you!)

Well, we had our big boffo vacation to Italy in the spring, so we stayed close to home during the summer. The summer's highlight was our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, marked by a quiet dinner at home that night, and an open house the following weekend, when 85 of our nearest and dearest gathered to celebrate. The company, food, prosecco, and warm wishes could not have been better.

2. Are you glad to see this summer end? Why or why not?

I'm always glad for cooler weather to arrive (which it won't, for another six weeks or so), but otherwise I'm neither glad nor sorry. For people without kids, September is just another month.

3. Name one or two things you're looking forward to this fall.

I love the cooler weather, when it finally comes. October and November are comfortable and it's a pleasure to be outside then (except for the ragweed!).

4. Do you have any special preparations or activities to mark the transition from one season to another? (Cleaning of house, putting away summer clothes, one last trip to the beach)

We don't have a sharp demarcation of seasons here, so transitions are very subtle. I don't do anything special to mark the change of seasons.

5. I'll know that fall is really here when_we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner!

I like thinking back to ten or twelve years ago, when there were many young children in our neighborhood. My next door neighbor and I enjoyed standing outside with a glass of wine on Halloween evening, enjoying the cooler temperature and the parade of trick-or-treaters. That neighbor has long since moved away, and the kids are all grown and gone. But in those days, that's how I knew fall was really here.

4 comments:

DogBlogger said...

Good play! You're so right about September being like any other month for those of us without kids. (Which is why we're taking our vacation tomorrow through Friday, when a lot of them will be back in school.)

Cub and Angus are in Not Getting Left mode, but they'll be fine with Aunt Cathy and forget all about us after a day or so.

I'm Molly said...

I love the parade at Halloween too!

Sally said...

well played- good point about no kids- my 3 are all off to University this month, and for the first time in years we are holidying in October!

Unknown said...

After reading Eat, Pray and Love, I would die for a trip to Italy, so when you went, I went with you heart and soul.

What a nice description of fall.