10 Ways to Embrace Fall Over Summer

Though I am a summer person that basks in warmth and sunshine, I also find a lot to love about those chilly days of fall as well. It is amazing what you can often take for granted day after day without noticing. Then out of the blue, your eyes can suddenly open to see things that were there all along with new appreciation for what that season has to offer.  With this in mind, I thought to share ten ways to embrace fall over summer as I do.

Of all the seasons, I think fall has the most natural beauty to behold with all the trees and their changing colors. Leaves turning in a range of striking shades of vivid cherry, scarlet to berry reds against rich yellow-golds to pale and burnished takes of yellow with varying degrees of green and brown is a breathtaking site. Young children never seem to miss fall’s magnificence, gathering leaves to collect as they often do. Yet, we as adults, are too focused on our fast paced lives that we forget to pause and truly admire the talent of what nature has painted. For this reason, the colors alone are one of the ten ways to embrace fall over summer.

Just as the eyes delight over that glorious landscape whether gazing through a window to getting up close by taking walks, our other senses, such as our stomachs, get rewarded as well. Think of all the delicious seasonal beverages that you can enjoy during autumn such as pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin spice frappuccino, pumpkin smoothies, apple cider, and hot chocolate besides hot liqueur-spiked coffee and teas to warm your bones. This is also a great time to buy a pumpkin flavored coffee creamer at the grocery store while it is available to embrace fall over summer.

Better still, fresh pumpkins are everywhere in grocery stores to local pumpkin patches. Some people love decorating the big pumpkins for Jack-o’-lanterns. Those that like pumpkins and corn stalks to dress their porches, decks, stairs to sidewalks can have fun and artistic freedom carving scary faces to fashioning corn stalk arrangements or centerpieces out of seasonal gourds to adorn their homes.

However, I think it is a waste of good food when you can eat them. If you never tried cooking a fresh pumpkin for puree, it is easier when you have the right way to do it like my technique. I’ll show you what I learned to save you from mistakes. You will be surprised at the money and amount of pumpkin puree you get from a small pumpkin compared to the amount you get out of a can.

Now is also the time a variety of fall apples are finally in stores. Apples are not only healthy, but are quite reasonable for baking and filling your home with delicious aromas of apples and spices such as apple pie or apple-custard pie, crock-pot apples and rice dessert to my apple carrot spice cake, baked apples, etc. Search my recipes for plenty of my other favorites for apples and pumpkin among them.

Keeping in that fall mood, another way to embrace fall over summer is indulging in the lavishing scent of pumpkin and spices through skin care and body products to aromatic fragrances and spice releasing candles to welcome fall in properly to freshen your home.

Your family can’t fight you now about serving more hot and spicy dishes during fall that they may complain about for summer. I am a big fan of chili, stew and soups for warming up.

How can I forget about the value of all the extra fallen leaves along with mowed grass and shrub clippings for composting? You’ll save the cost of those recycling bags while enriching your soil just by digging a small hole in a spot in your yard, then cover with a shovel of dirt. These leaves with the help of some dirt decompose quickly. Before long, your soil will be richer and you will be the new best friend of birds, especially robins in my area when they see the shovel moving toward the compost pile.  Trust me, you will be the hero of neighborhood birds, who will sing your praises from above branches before flying over.

We spend more time indoors during autumn. Another reason to embrace fall is due to the new fall television season.  Finally, those programs are starting to hit the airwaves instead of summer reruns.

Reading more good books, snuggled up with a cozy blanket or comfy sweater is another way to embrace fall to unwind after a long day. Losing yourself in a favorite work of fiction is not only a great exercise for the brain’s pathways, but a wonderful calming escape.  By now, you probably have guessed that I love books and any form of the written word!

Though we said our good-byes to summer, I hope that now that you finished this post that you’ll feel better about autumn enough to embrace it more with these ten ways to embrace fall over summer.