Getting Ahead of Myself

Confession: It's July 15 and I'm ready for fall. But I really don't think it's my fault. It started when I walked into a store and they were selling school supplies. I've always been a sucker for school supplies. When You've Got Mail came out back in the 90's, I identified immediately with Tom Hank's character (Joe Fox) when he said...

Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

Boxes of unsharpened #2 pencils, notebooks filled with clean sheets of paper offering nothing but potential, and binders. Oh, how I love binders! It's no wonder Kathleen Kelly fell head over heals for NY152.

So despite the fact that it's mid-summer, small children will be herded back into their seats of learning no later than August 6th, and I'm overcome by the school supply displays popping up everywhere from Target to my local pharmacy.

I might have been able to get past the school supplies by generally avoiding stores for another month or so, but late last week, I looked out my kitchen window and saw this...

That's right... the mums that I planted 2 years ago in window boxes on my back deck, are now coming out in full bloom. While I can't seem to keep them alive when they are a part of my fall display and I water them on a (semi) regular basis, put the things in some random pots on the back deck, ignore them completely, and they grow all on their own, year after year. Go figure.

Not only that, but a close observer will also note the yellow leaf on the cherry tree in the background. One of the earliest to bloom, our cherry is also one of the earliest to change color and drop it's leaves, and this year is no exception. With autumnal colors so close to my kitchen, is it any wonder I'm in the mood for apple cider, pumpkin pie, and the occasional bonfire?

But the final straw literally slipped through our mailslot and landed in the basket. When this arrived in the post, I declared summer to be over and implored fall to arrive as quickly as possible...

I confess to being a sucker for candles and well laid out sales ploys that use catchy phrases like, "bring the season home" (although their lack of capitalization kills me). I've got my eye on that "Pumpkin Wreath" jar, as well as the "Cozy Sweater" and "November Rain," but, as with the school supplies, my best defense is to avoid the stores... at least until August.

What about you? What's YOUR favorite season?