Celebrating Fall

Fall has always been my favorite season, mainly because of the beautiful red, orange, and yellow colors. Also, to me it represents a fresh start, maybe because a new school year begins and I still associate that with new beginnings. This Fall we're planning a little work around the house, and I'm hunting for a new, more interesting job, so I hope that this Fall season brings a facelift to both my home and career.

Fall is sort of a literal "fresh" start, too, because the blistering heat of summer is now gone. I can open the windows and not run the AC or the heater. There are fewer bugs. The humidity is lower and my frizzy hair becomes more manageable. There will be other "starts" in the garden this season. We lost a tree in the front yard earlier this week. Although I didn't think the rains were that heavy, apparently it rained enough on Tuesday to finally push over the edge the shallow roots of the spruce tree in our front yard. I hate losing trees. We also removed an azalea bush right in front of the tree. All that's left is a barberry bush and a lopsided azalea bush.   We found a bird's nest in the azalea bush! I'm glad that shrub is still intact. I hope once we get another tree up it'll provide a home for other birds. The best time to plant new trees is in the Fall, so if we can get things cleaned up and ready in the next few weeks, we hope to have a new tree before winter.

Things slow down in the garden. Last weekend we cleaned up our container garden. Gone are the dead, brown tomato plants. They didn't have a good year anyway. The basil has started to flower, so it's going to seed soon. The peppers continue to ripen and do well in the daytime heat, though the cool evening temperatures will start slow production down.

Gardening aside, one of the best things about Fall is the food!  This is the perfect weather for soup, it's still nice enough outside to grill and eat outside, and I can start using the oven again without turning my house into a greenhouse. A hot cup of tea or coffee is more enjoyable when the morning is chilly. So tomorrow, on the official first day of Fall, I will be switching from iced Chai lattes to warm Chai tea.
I'm joining Donna's Seasonal Celebrations at Gardens Eye View Head on over to read about how other garden bloggers are celebrating the change in season.