Autumnal

Ahh, I love autumn. The change of the seasons is something I have really missed since moving to Florida, but I am learning that there is a seasonal change, albeit rather subtle. And thanks to some freaky weather patterns, we actually have a cooling down at the moment, which has nicely coincided with the start of autumn. Now, by cooling down, obviously I'm not talking sweater weather. I mean that we have daytime temperatures in the mid-high 80's instead of the low 90's. I used not to be able to appreciate that difference, or even think it was significant, but once you get attuned to the temperatures, it really does make quite a large difference in quality of life. And overnight temperatures are now routinely in the 70's. It has even - gasp - stayed in the 70's until I get to work. Which is wonderful. It's wonderful to be able to do my morning walk without sweating like a pig. It's wonderful to think of the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness even if we won't get any of that. Even though I know the cooling down will be temporary until the first real cold front comes through, it's still nice to enjoy it while it lasts.

It's also wonderful to think of FOOD. Yes, the local farms are starting up again. Now, you normal-climate northeners may be thinking about harvest and coldness and farms closing down. But here they close down in the summer because it is just too hot and humid to grow vegetables well. So fall is kind of like our spring, and my veggie box from my local CSA farm is NEARLY HERE. Just a couple more weeks. And then a couple weeks after that the local farmers markets start up again. I can hardly wait.

And of course, another, huge reason why I like autumn? It's birthday season! Really, that's a whole other post, as due to infertility my birthdays are now pretty depressing. Especially as starting to TTC was my big 36th birthday present to myself - with all the "hey, I've waited long enough, let's DO this" kind of optimism. And now it's 3 years later and I have been to hell and back. Several times. I'll save that post for next week I think. But on the whole, autumn is still a good season.