You know what I realized today? In the past year I didn’t notice so much that the seasons didn’t really change. There’s some fluctuation in temperature (but not much) and sometimes it rains more than other times (though we apparently had a very dry winter) but it doesn’t feel like it can possibly be September because it feels like June. I know in a lot of places that September blends in with the rest of summer, but when stores start stocking “autumn” smells and flavors and clothing (sweaters in Hawaii? seriously?) it seems like autumn ought to be right around the corner…. but really it’ll just get a tiny bit cooler and maybe start to rain.

I also realized that I might actually miss autumn this year. Since we moved in September last year, summer just sort of… continued. Our routine was disrupted so we didn’t really miss our usual autumny activities. This year I think J and I both will…

Things I like about autumn:

• leaves changing colors
• football!
• spicy drinks and foods (especially pumpkin spice stuff)
• Halloween and Thanksgiving
• cooler weather
• scarves
• my spiced pumpkin candles (are you seeing a theme here?)
• my birthday is soon
• changing my house decor to autumn colors (yes, I have seasonal stuff)
• basketball is just around the corner!
• Renaissance Festival season! (Yes, I know some are spring and summer, but we always go in the fall)
• the state fair

So while I can still have most of those things even without the season changing, it feels weird. I walked into a Macy’s today and they had all this Halloween stuff, and then in the back I found people putting up Christmas trees (behind curtains, but they’re prepping). First of all, Christmas shouldn’t happen until we’ve had Thanksgiving (not to mention Halloween!) and second of all, it doesn’t feel cool enough out for Halloween.

So I guess I’ll get out my autumn-leaf silks and pumpkin decor. And then (after Thanksgiving) I’ll put up the ever green stuff for the winter. It’s almost like I’ve got pretend seasons happening inside my house while outside it’s mild and sunny all the time. Weird.