Leaf Kicking Walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the changing seasons. That’s the Minnesota girl in me. Outside our front door hangs a sign that says, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Fall is in the Air” - 

 Soon Time for a Leaf Kicking Walk. . . 

And yesterday my hubby and I did just that.  Went for a leaf kicking walk as we wandered the streets

in our neighborhood.

I love the familiar sounds of fall.  Every year I wait to hear the sound of the school bus clunking down our street the week after Labor Day to pick up the neighborhood kids waiting on the corner.  

I love the sound of their laughter that floats through my kitchen window as I stand at my stove stirring  oatmeal. 

The sound of the first fall rains as they dance on the roof overhead. 

I love exchanging flip flops for boots. . . 

T-shirts for chunky sweaters. . . 

and warm, cozy scarves. . . 

 

Raking leaves and everything looks so clean and then a few days later the winds return to blow more leaves off the trees replacing the ones I just raked up,

 

sigh. . .

the last mowing and knowing gardening is behind me for the next few months.  Emptying the outdoor pots of flowers that look weary from the hot summer sun and replacing them with decorative cabbages.   

 

The resident squirrels that show up at our back door every morning waiting for their winter stash of peanuts. 

Then. . . 

One of the most fun, fall activities - heading to the pumpkin farm with my friend to find our white, flat pumpkins. Walking up and down all the aisles searching for the -

perfect pumpkins. . .

Asking each other, what do you think?

Maybe - Maybe not. . .

And of course, every fall I‘m on the hunt for - 

a new winter sweater. . . 

When our granddaughter was born one of the first places we took her was to the beach, put her bare toes in the sand and walked her to the waters edge to smell the salt water.  From the time she was a baby I would take her to an open window during a rain storm and say to her, Niya Lilly, just smell the rain.  I talked to her about the rain,  

how softly it falls -  

how fresh it smells - 

and how quiet the world feels when it’s raining.   

She just turned six and last week she called from Idaho just to say -

Ga Ga, I just wanted to tell you,  

“I’m smelling the rain”.   

Which of course, made my heart smile. . . 

Happy Fall!!! 

Take time for a leaf kicking walk.