Pumpkins, autumn crafts, and a poem

As I've mentioned oft before,
I adore autumn.
It is my absolute favorite time of the year!  Autumn is when the new school year starts, and being the nerd that I am, I've always enjoyed school and a new school year is just so thrilling and promising...and boy, do I miss it.

Autumn is also when Halloween, mine and my husband's favorite holiday, occurs.
It is when the mountains surrounding Salt Lake explode in beautiful, fiery brightness and leaves come drifting slowly down from their homes like drops of sunshine.
It just smells good in the air, and I can start sleeping with the windows open again to let in the crisp chill.  Even the sun feels different--like it is relinquishing its pounding, hot grip and getting ready to settle down for a nap.
The birds start gulping down seeds and getting fatter, and there is rain, wonderful rain!
Autumn rain showers are just spectacular.  Everything is so fresh.
And don't even get me started on the treats and foods autumn brings!
One word: pumpkin.

Putting out my fabric pumpkins!

Yes, I am that person that eats pumpkin everything.  Yesterday I had my first pumpkin ale of the season, and a pumpkin cupcake.  And that is only the beginning my friends...
I even have a pumpkin face wash that I save for fall (okay..I bust it out during the summer sometimes when I just can't help myself).

When the hubby and I can afford it, and get a house, it is going to be an autumn haven--teeming with decorations made from real fall leaves, and my favorite autumn books, like Pumpkin Moonshine, strewn about.
We've got a few decorations now, but they aren't nearly enough.
I made a new one last week...


It is a "to do this fall" list!
I painted a canvas with acrylics for the background and then did permanent marker and ink overlay for the writing part, gave it a setting spritz, and popped it in a frame.
So far I'd say we've done...3 things on this list.
And I can't wait to get started on the rest!

September was very Septemberish this year, and I am hoping that October is just as fitting.


In conclusion, I would like to share one of my favorite autumn poems, from Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Go, sit upon the lofty hill,
And turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild
Do hymn an autumn sound.
The summer sun is faint on them —
The summer flowers depart —
Sit still — as all transform’d to stone,
Except your musing heart.

How there you sat in summer-time,
May yet be in your mind;
And how you heard the green woods sing
Beneath the freshening wind.
Though the same wind now blows around,
You would its blast recall;
For every breath that stirs the trees,
Doth cause a leaf to fall.

Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth
That flesh and dust impart:
We cannot bear its visitings,
When change is on the heart.
Gay words and jests may make us smile,
When Sorrow is asleep;
But other things must make us smile,
When Sorrow bids us weep!

The dearest hands that clasp our hands, —
Their presence may be o’er;
The dearest voice that meets our ear,
That tone may come no more!
Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth,
Which once refresh’d our mind,
Shall come — as, on those sighing woods,
The chilling autumn wind.

Hear not the wind — view not the woods;
Look out o’er vale and hill —
In spring, the sky encircled them —
The sky is round them still.
Come autumn’s scathe — come winter’s cold —
Come change — and human fate!
Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound,
Can ne’er be desolate.