MY FAVORITE SEASON OF THE YEAR

Is SUMMER - hee hee - you thought I was going to say fall, didn't you? Don is a Virgo and I asked him the other day how Virgos can put up with the chaos of autumn, what with their tidy ways and their clever ideas for keeping everything organized and controlled. What about all those leaves floating about, what about all those leaves littering the ground? Doesn't that work against their sense of tidiness? He said he couldn't explain it, because usually that much distraction would drive him crazy - but he just loves fall!



The sideboard - decorated with leaves, gourds and my favorite Myrtlewood bowl from my cousin in Oregon.

I, on the other hand, adore summer. And the best place for summer is the Pacific Northwest - pleasant temperatures (72-76) most days, plenty of sunshine, a tiny breeze and not bad humidity. Days on end of this kind of weather make me the happiest person in the world, and I mourn for those days when fall comes. Here in the PNW fall comes with rain, Rain, RAin, RAIn, RAIN! And then it rains more.

Now having grown up in Southeast Alaska (the part that runs down beside British Columbia) I know rain. We played outdoors in the rain because we would not have gotten outdoors otherwise, so I'm used to rain. But I am a little sad when the glorious days of sunshine and pleasant temperatures are gone and the rain settles in. There are indeed some gloriously sunny days in the fall here, but they are cooler, damper and remind us that more rain is coming. I like a good rainy day (good thing) for making stew, doing some canning, baking bread and cuddling up with a good quilt to do some hand quilting - but my favorite season shall forever be summer - long, pleasant glorious summer!



More of the sideboard - with a teeny tiny birdhouse.

But I do decorate for fall - not as extensively as some others - but a little bit here and there - and some years more than others. This year was a moderate year, just some garlands of leaves and a few faux punkins, along with the pine cones I've collected over the years.



The china cabinet with a pine cone teapot, corn dishes, pinecones and sunflowers.

I love the holidays that follow - Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years. This Thanksgiving none of our kids might be here for the big turkey dinner - one family will be in Virginia visiting the other side of the family, another lives in West Virginia and will be spending happy days with family there, and the third might be in Olympia, so we might just have a roast chicken instead of a turkey and a quiet dinner. I prefer the big, confusing, rushing about time of the Thanksgiving dinner - but we must learn to share our families - though we miss them terribly when they are not around.

And so - we bid farewell to summer - get through autumn and then on to the festivities - I already have plans in my head for the christmas decorations in our new house - this will be our first Christmas here - what fun we'll have!!!!



Good-bye old friend summer!!!