The Leaves of Fall

My granddaughter will be ten months old this month. The time has flown by! But as she gets a little older, and as fall approaches, I am getting very about re-living some of my favorite fall traditions with a little one.
One of the reasons that I love fall so much is the beautiful array of colors that appear on the trees. I love the yellows, oranges, and reds of the fall leaves. Driving along the roads of Frederick in the fall, I am continually in awe of the splendor of the colors.

When Tim was in the Navy, we lived in Texas, California, and Florida. Those states are not typically known for their fall foliage. Few people travel to those places to see the magnificence of fall leaves. For five years, I went without a real fall. Sure we had trick-or-treating and Halloween. There were also pumpkin patches and apple cider, but never could I look out my window and see the color of fall.

The first year that we were back in Maryland, I would often pack the kids up in the car and just drive around the back roads and stop to gaze at the leaves. Many times as I was driving the car, I would wipe the tears from my eyes. I had missed my leaves so much, but they were there just like they were every fall. I had missed them so.
I also love the leaves on the ground. There’s nothing like the sound of crunching leaves as you hike down the mountain trails along the Appalachian Trail. When my children were younger, we would take them on hikes in the fall and we would all crunch, crunch, crunch down the trail path.

Leaves are also great in piles. I loved the times when we would rake them all nice and neatly into a great mound on the lawn and then the dogs would come running and plow right through the pile. Leaves would fly everywhere and we would all laugh. I think the dogs enjoyed it as much as we did.

I can’t wait to make leaf piles with Chloë, to hike along the trails and giggle at the crunching sounds. Fall is such a beautiful time of the year. I am so looking forward to sharing it with my granddaughter!

This blogpost ran as my column, "The Empty Nest," in the Frederick News Post on Sunday October 7, 2012.