Fall Celebrations

Fall in New England is as refreshing as the feel of a cleansing shower after a hard days work.  The weather turns away from the oppression of summer heat to give way to crisp air and crystalline blue skies.  Cooler evening nights inject the final touch of sweetness to the new crop of apples readying them for picking; while crisp, juicy apples and bright orange pumpkins bring hoards of visitors to the apple farms. 

Fall is time of refreshing renewal as the harvest is brought in but it harkens the winter chill.  The leaves are splashed with spectacular "eye candy" color but give way to the bareness of the branches in too short a time.  It is a time for family fun on hay laden horse drawn carts filled with joyful children but the evenings give way to the ghost and ghouls of Halloween hauntings.  It is a time filled with contradictions, beginning and endings.

In the spirit of the days of community camaraderie, at the end of a long harvest season, the scent of freshly baked pies would tickle a person's imagination with a mouth watering sensation.  Music would lilt in the air as the celebratory picking would announce the annual harvest dance.  Men, dressed in their best Sunday overalls and woman in the most feminine of flowered gowns adorned with matching bonnets sauntered along to the call of the music and the dance of life would commence.  These were the fun filled days after the harvest was in and before the winter chill drove them into their homes, hunkered down by the warming fires.  It was a time of celebration and preparedness.  Today, picking parties at the apple orchards replicate the nostalgia of those pioneer days. 

Embrace the fall despite its whisper of harsher days to follow.  Capture the image of the splashes of colored leaves, the puffs of mums in shades or yellow, orange and reds, the apple tree burdened with its ripened fruit in your mind so that you may take them out repeatedly during the long winter months.  Look up at the sky and inhale the imagery of the large puffy cumulus clouds.  What is it you see in their shapes?  Close your eyes and capture the sweet sounds of the mournful fiddle in your heart.  Feel the music, be moved by it.  Bite into a crisp and tart Macintosh and let the juices run down your chin.  Soak in all the life forces Fall has to offer so that you may reflect and rejoice because life is precious.