Autumn

The colors have been beautiful this year!  

A lot of factors go into the brilliance of the season- the amount of sunlight, temperature fluctuations, cloud cover, and moisture.  What happens in the fall is that as the daylight decreases, the chlorophyll (the green stuff in leaves) stops producing food.  When the chlorophyll dies off and fades away, the brilliant reds, oranges, yellows, and purples that have been present the whole time are uncovered.  Warm sunny days and cool nights help to enhance the colors that we see. Eventually the leaves detach from their branchy homes and gracefully flutter to the ground.  Enough of the botany aspect for now.

The best part of fall for kids is raking the leaves into piles and jumping in!  Our kids love playing in the leaves.  Pumpkin becomes a monster and loves to bury others under the crunchy goodness.  We have shag-bark hickory, red maple, sweet gum, ash, and a few fruit trees in our yard.  This time of the year my husband also LOVES to crack open the shag-bark hickory nuts to collect the decadent nut meat inside.  It is an extremely time consuming process and involves a hammer.  Usually you cannot make it through the season without at least one smashed finger.  Mix some of these nuts into chocolate chip cookie dough for a wonderful autumn treat!