Labor Day is just around the corner and with it comes the traditional ending of the summer season.  Although the calendar doesn’t say it’s officially fall yet, for all practical purposes summer is over.  Many local pools and tourist attractions close for the year.  The kids all go back to school.  Collage students begin another chapter of their lives.

    I love to watch the changing of the seasons.  That’s one of the reasons I keep living in Ohio.  The leaves haven’t started to change their colors, but when they do, they are gorgeous!  I love the brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows.  I love to watch the squirrels and chipmunks scurry around gathering food for the winter.

     I usually decorate my house with pumpkins and gourds, scarecrows and little woodland creatures.  We have some rather annoying crows living next door.  I wonder if I could hire them to sit on my porch railing and greet our guests?  They might be an unusual decoration and the talk of the neighborhood, but their loud caws are not helpful when taking an afternoon nap.

     I remember when I was young we used to rake up the fallen leaves, jump and scatter the piles, rake then up again and burn them on the roadside.  What a wonderful smell they produced.  Now days one can’t burn outside, especially in town.  I’m afraid those days are gone forever, although once in a while, when out in the country I get to experience that smell.  In some counties in Ohio farmers can still burn brush piles, so I get the fragrance of leaves burning.  It always carries me back to my childhood memories of fall.