I saw the shifting colors today...Autumn and Halloween are on the way:-)

I love Autumn! It is that quiet time when the Earth prepares to rest. It gets out its brightest fabrics of leaves then shakes them with soft breezes so they fall in quilt patches to the ground. The air is crisp with the smells of the harvest and the soft nights yawn with frosty breath as winters sleep approaches.

Today I saw the first shifting of color that announces the beginning of Autumn. The summer dark greens of the forest lighten with a overlay of yellow accented small touches of color at the tip the tree tops. In a few weeks they will be ablaze!

In a few weeks the woods will be ablaze!

Produce stands are filling with a new crop of apples, bails of straw and pumpkins. Children have started back to school. The school buses roll along through country roads, town and city neighborhoods. If you listen carefully as they pass you can hear happy plans for Halloween.

Baroque Bat.

Halloween, the last big block party before we must hide from the cold winter winds. There will be Thanksgiving of course before winter comes calling but it will not bring out the joyful kid in all of us quite the same way as Halloween.

For children Halloween is fun, scary, a mystery, skeletons, black cats, jack-o-lanterns, bats flying past the moon and witches beckoning us to watch and listen to the night. It is a flashlight under the blankets when we should be asleep. It is sitting at the top of the stairs to listen to grownup talk and then being afraid to walk down the darkened hall to bed. When I was a girl it was sneaking into the living room and sitting by the radio, turned on just loud enough to hear if your ear was pressed close, to dark stories of the night.

Black Cat and Witches Hat.

For anyone who thinks childhood has passed them by, this time of year can bring you back to magical times, walking through the leaves, making the breath of dragons in the frosty air, sweet treats, dressing up, the last block party of the year... Autumn and Halloween.

Halloween, for the kid in all of us!

Amanda and Frogbird, wherever he is:-)