It's that time again: time to wax euphoric over the smell of cold crispness and hickory wood fires in the air. That's right people, it's autumn! Also known to frequenters of McSweeny's as "decorative gourd season." (I'd recommend the article, but for the high percentage of the text that's just obscenities added for humorous effect.)It's time for long walks in the nature (that's right, The Nature), it's time for pumpkin picking and leaves changing colour. Time for apple pie and pumpkin pie and mincemeat pie. Time for my favourite sport to watch: football! (Go Deacs!) And yes, Mr. McSweeny, it's time to find some tiny gourds and pumpkins embalmed in wax and put them on your dining room table to look festive! (These samples below are quite creepy looking little monsters. These are the deformed children of the gourd world who are generally left in churches to ring large bells.)
Heck, let's just bring all of the outdoors to the indoors: giant coniferous trees of various descriptions; when the snow starts coming, get some Ilex aquifolium in a circle on the door, hang a few bunches of Phoradendron from the lintels in the house (and keep some breath mints handy just in case!).
I love the autumn. I love layering my clothes and wearing jumpers and scarves. I love the pristine clearness of a perfectly cool and sunny day in October. I love the indescribable smell of cold on the air. I love the excuses to make comfort food like buttermilk biscuits, and corn chowder, and split pea soup, and chicken pot pie. I love consuming ever-growing assortments of cranberry-based food and drink. Most of all, right now, I love that I'm not in school any more. Joy! Rapture! For the first time in 18 years of my life I am perfectly free to enjoy all the delights of autumn without wasting the precious daylight hours in class!
Autumn: I salute you.
(PS: to my lovely readers...10 extra points if you realise that I was talking about holly and mistletoe, respectively, without knowing enough Greek and Latin to decipher the names.)
(PPS: I will now be singing The Holly and the Ivy for the rest of the day. Play it again, Sam!...)
Having re-read the McSweeny's article, I think my favourite line was about finding a cornucopia and then: "jam[ming] it full of an insanely ornate assortment of shellacked vegetables."
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