Fall Back and Spring Forward

I have a few friends who knit and blog and we've decided to embark on a blog project that has nothing to do with knitting. We're going to take turns coming up with a topic every Thursday and we each have to blog about it by the end of that day and post links to each others' blogs so that people can see our different perspectives on the same topic.

Check out the backstory about how the project was conceived and how we all came together.

Here are the other blogs:
Froggie Knits Like Crazy
Charmingly Random
Desperate Madness

This week's topic comes from Froggie: Write about your favorite season or time of year.

My favorite season is autumn, but my favorite time of year is the month of March.

To explain in more detail...I love the way autumn looks and feels. I love how beautiful the leaves are when they turn red, orange, yellow and brown. I love the piles of leaves that my kids can run through and crunch under their feet. I sometimes like to join them. I like how it means a new start...a new year of school and a new year on the Hebrew calendar. Sukkot takes place in the fall and I love being able to sit outside in the crisp air and enjoy a hot bowl of "Journey's End" soup. I love making campfires and eating s'mores. These days, the "campfire" is really my s'mores making set. :) I also love an excuse to wear sweaters but not need a coat just yet. I still have a thing for Halloween and autumn always represents that for me. I love all the pumpkins sitting out on peoples' front steps and the fact that canned pumpkin is in season to make lots of pies, cakes and soups. And call me crazy, but I love the smell of chimney smoke. It has such a cozy feel to it. I also enjoy taking trips to get pictures of the leaves. We missed out on doing that last year due to a lot of rain and a busy High Holiday season. In the past we would go to Starved Rock State Park when we lived in Illinois. We got some great pictures there and it was so beautiful to walk around in general. One year, we skipped out on Starved Rock to take a weekend trip through Door County, Wisconsin. The colors were beautiful out there too. There were fun festivals in the small towns along the way to the tip of Wisconsin. At other times, we have just taken nature walks through our neighborhood or have gone apple picking. Finally, my older son was born in September, so I always look forward to celebrating his birthday as one of the first autumn activities. I'm hoping we can go camping this autumn, as that would be a lot of fun.

To date, my desktop wallpaper at work is of an autumn scene....

As for my favorite time of year being the month of March...it just marks a bunch of big events in my life. I moved out of my parents' house and into my grandma's condo (when she was in assisted living) in March of 2000. I started taking improv comedy classes in March of 2001. In March of 2003, I got engaged on a cruise. My wedding was in March of 2004. We celebrated an anniversary in Vegas in March of 2006. My younger son was born in March of 2008. And we saw "In the Heights" in March of 2009 (another anniversary celebration). March is also when Purim usually occurs. It was in February this year, but close enough to carry over into March as Shushan Purim. I love how fun and festive the holiday is and sometimes it gets compared to Halloween, but without all the spooky stuff (even though Haman was scary).

While I love that the leaves are coming off the trees in autumn because it's done in such a graceful way, I also love that spring comes along in March and the trees start to bring forth new life with their leaves and flowers. This is my first spring in Maryland and I'm enjoying all the beauty of it. While I enjoy the peacefulness of an early evening that arrives with the autumn, I also enjoy having more daylight in the spring (even though it confuses my older son in terms of understanding night time). I guess I'm just full of contrasts, but it's nice to have something to look forward to every 6 months. :)