Fall

All Things Pumpkin

September 29, 2020 by Nancy 18 Comments

It’s coming! The season when mango-flavored everything gives way to pumpkin-flavored everything, and I’m not just talking about the pumpkin spice latte at the corner coffee shop—although I will indulge in at least one of those.

Just walking into a grocery store this time of year lets you know pumpkin season is upon us. Outside the door are miniature pumpkins and gourds to nestle into fall arrangements with mums and colorful corn. Inside are pumpkins for carving and pumpkins for baking—and anyone willing to remove the slimy pulp inside of the pumpkin, separate and toast the pumpkin seeds, and use the pulp in a recipe is certainly deserving of the richest pumpkin flavor imaginable.

For the rest of us, it’s Libby’s canned pumpkin to the rescue. Pumpkin pie—it’s not just for Thanksgiving anymore—and pumpkin bread are always welcome treats. Then there are pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies and pumpkin pancakes. No wonder we fall for all things pumpkin!

Yet not everything is enhanced by pumpkin flavor. Who would want pumpkin Jell-O? And while pumpkin beer may seem seasonally appropriate, do beer drinkers really drink it? I probably won’t choose a pumpkin ice cream cone or milkshake either, even if it is the flavor of the month. (Not even pumpkin can lure me away from chocolate.) And a recipe I saw for pumpkin chai tea didn’t appeal at all.

Nothing says fall like a precariously perched pile of pumpkins, however! I even saw a whole house made out of pumpkins in Nashville last year. And not all pumpkins are orange. Decorators have discovered white pumpkins and mix them with all shapes and sizes of smaller pumpkins and gourds.

Choosing the perfect pumpkin for a jack-o-lantern is a fall tradition kids look forward to, and visiting a local pumpkin patch can be especially fun when a hayride and hot apple cider are a part of the experience.

Nope, you can’t fight it this time of year so get “pumpkined.” Put some pumpkin spice creamer in your coffee, light a pumpkin-scented candle, and pay homage to the flavor and scent of pumpkin season. It will be gone before we know it.

Are You a Season Clinger?

October 28, 2019 by Nancy 10 Comments

You know us when you see us. Those of us who can’t quite let go of the season we are losing to fully embrace the one that is coming. Especially when it means letting go of summer to embrace fall or fall to embrace winter.

We’re the ones in the grocery store in a turtleneck, a vest, shorts and sandals. We’re the ones who keep bringing in our outdoor potted plants every night to protect them from below freezing temperatures because we just know warm days will return. And we’re the ones who leave our hummingbird feeders up until the nectar’s been frozen for several days in a row.

In our defense, however, it’s easy to understand why Colorado residents might be clinging to summer and fall both this year. Summer temperatures and blossoms were late in arriving, and an early frost cheated us of the beautiful showing of fall leaves on trees at lower elevations.

When I left for a trip, the red maple behind our house was just beginning to show tinges of red around the edges of each leaf. I came back a week later excited to see it flaming red as in years past, but no. All the leaves had already turned brown and were blowing away with each wind. “Wait!” I wanted to scream. “You haven’t turned bright red yet!”

In the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, however, the author Solomon reminds us that: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Reading through his reminders of such things as a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to weep and a time to mourn and on and on, I realize it could be time to let go of fall and embrace winter.

What does this mean? It’s time to switch summer T-shirts and sundresses for sweaters and corduroy pants in our closets. It’s time to detach the hose, prune the perennials, empty the pots and store them. It’s time to dig out the boots, the mittens and scarves and fill the hall closet with warm winter coats.

Solomon goes on to write that God has made everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The pot of impatiens I couldn’t bring myself to sacrifice is almost as beautiful in the house as it was on the front porch in July, and I only have to look outside my window this morning to remember that the coming winter season will have beauty all its own. Okay, God, I surrender. You’re telling me it’s time to let go and move on, so I will. As always, I trust Your timing.

Applicious

October 15, 2018 by Nancy 15 Comments

The scarier the world gets the more mundane my blog posts seem to become. Cats, books, pumpkins…it seems in an attempt to diffuse the scariness nothing is too commonplace to become the topic for a blog these days! Given that, and how scary and sad the world has been this month, today’s subject is the apple. That’s right, that red orb that bounced around in your metal lunchbox in third grade. Let it bounce you to a saner, happier time!

Of course the apple is much maligned as the forbidden fruit that Eve ate and gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden, but this is only because artists have depicted the fruit as an apple. The Bible never says what kind of fruit it was. It could have been a kumquat for all we know. (Isn’t kumquat a funny word? I always wanted to use it in a sentence. Now I can check that off my bucket list. Writers have weird bucket lists.)

Apples are mentioned in the Bible however. In Proverbs, the collection of the wise teachings of Solomon and others, we find, “A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver (Proverbs 25:11).” There’s some wisdom there alright. We should peel away at that teaching until we get to the core of it. If only we limited our conversations, our texts, and our tweets to words aptly spoken. Not apple-y, but aptly, meaning suitably or appropriately. The world would be a better place already.

Fall is apple season, and any grocery store shopper can go cross-eyed trying to decide between the Red Delicious, Gala, McIntosh, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Honeycrisp and more. Gourmet cooks know which apple works best in which apple dish, but I just pick shiny ones that look fresh and have the fewest worm holes. Biting into a worm isn’t how we like to get our protein!

Those fortunate enough to live close to an orchard that hosts an apple festival may be able to pick your own bushel then get busy making apple butter, apple pie, apple cake, apple tarts, applesauce, apple fritters, apple crisp and the ever popular apple cider—now offered in upscale bars as well. How well I remember such an apple picking adventure with my son and his family at an orchard in Virginia. It included a cold but fun hayride!

So have I succeeded in getting you to forget about this morning’s news and dwell instead on the joy of biting into an apple with all its crunchy sweetness? There is joy to be found in all the ordinary things of life. And hope as well. Martin Luther wrote, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

Pick up an apple and praise God for making it just for you. Even in a piece of ordinary fruit we can find joy and hope if we give God the glory. “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him (Psalm 34:8).”

A Harvest of Memories

September 13, 2018 by Nancy 16 Comments

What is it about the first crisp morning of fall that brings a rush of nostalgia—especially to those of us with more than a few decades behind us?
Of course so many of our memories are back-to-school ones. Even before the temperature begins to change, several of the stores I frequent set out their offerings of school supplies. I blame back-to-school memories for the fact that I’m a glutton for the smell of new pencils and colored markers, the feel of fresh notebook paper, and the aisles of all things “back-to-schoolish.” I have to stay away from such displays because one year I bought a purple binder I didn’t need, well—just because it was purple!

Yes, the memories in the back-to-school category are plentiful indeed. I remember wearing a new plaid dress to the first day of school each year—the only new outfit I would have until Easter. I wore my hair in a ponytail throughout elementary school, but my mom would always take me to get my bangs permed before school started. I would show up looking like I had a Brillo® pad glued to my forehead! My school photos prove it.

But fall nostalgia doesn’t stop there. At any age autumn makes us think of cozy sweaters, warm socks, hot chocolate in front of a fire, and front porches decorated with an array of brightly colored pumpkins and other gourds, corn, and mums. It’s the time of year when we may go for a walk in an old jacket just for the joy of hearing the leaves crunch under our feet. Having an old dog as a companion completes the experience.

I grew up in Tennessee, so my memories of fall drives through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg to the Great Smoky Mountains through the years are replete with recollections of the fall displays on every corner. No cornstalk or scarecrow goes unappreciated in that part of the country in the fall!

And of course fall means the return of football, as my husband is so quick to point out. For him, the nostalgia centers around two-a-day practices and the year he was a high school running back playing for the state championship! Ah, the glory days. When he sees the football team practicing early in the morning on the dew-covered field at the high school near our house, it all comes back to him.

My teenage football memories center around cheering at high school games, but that little girl with the curly bangs remembers watching her parents go off to University of Tennessee football games on September Saturdays. My mom always wore a wool suit (no matter how warm the temperature on game day), heels, and a bright orange mum corsage. I was sure she’d be the prettiest fan there!

For many farm families, fall brings more than a harvest of memories. It brings the actual harvest of the last of the crops and the joy of sharing the bounty with friends and family—or getting it to market. It’s also a time to cut and bale the hay, storing it in the barn for winter. As a girl, I loved throwing my school books down as soon as I got home on warm fall days, running to the barn to jump on my horse, Dolly, and riding through the freshly mown fields near our house. The smell of hay still transports me there in an instant.

What about you? What memories of fall do you treasure? Savor the nostalgia this year. Let it seep into your soul like a bowl of steamy oatmeal on a frosty morning.

Welcome, fall! We’ve missed you.

Time for Some Fall-da-ra!

October 16, 2017 by Nancy 26 Comments

I know the word is really folderol, or falderal, and means foolishness or nonsense. But when I used my version to describe a neighbor’s wonderful display of all things autumn at her house we both laughed—so I thought I’d spread the joy!

Actually fall decorations aren’t nonsense, they are delightful and meaningful. The most lavish displays of fall-da-ra I’ve seen in my lifetime are in East Tennessee. Visiting my home state in October, and driving through Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg and on to Cades Cove in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I saw more pumpkins, scarecrows, dried cornstalks, decorative corn and gourds, hay bales and mums than I knew existed. Every street corner, business or residence has a fall display each year, and many rival a Macy’s window at Christmas time in terms of creativity and abundance.

So what motivates us to do this kind of fall decorating? Why do I have three tubs of fall decorations myself, and take great delight in setting out autumn leaves, pumpkins, and all things orange, red, and gold? The tradition actually has very deep roots. Anyone who has farmed or been around a farm knows the activity and celebration that accompanies the harvest season. Once all the hard work is done, the hay is baled and in the barn, the produce is picked and canned for winter, then it’s time to party!

Neighbors in farming communities still come together bringing fresh-baked apple pies and squash casseroles to share. Tables are decorated with mason-jar bouquets of the last blooms from the garden. There might even be a square dance to the tune of a fiddle or two—all under the glow of a big orange harvest moon. After all, in some areas of the country neighbors might not see one another again until the spring thaw. Time to celebrate!

As for the even more meaningful part, harvest is mentioned throughout the Bible. After the great flood detailed in Genesis, God promised Noah: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Gen. 8:22). In Exodus 23:16, God named one of the three feasts He expected the Jewish people to celebrate the Feast of Harvest. “Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field,” He said.

As with most Biblical themes, the harvest is carried through from the Old Testament to the New Testament. So we read in Galatians 6:9: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Why have some fall-da-ra? To celebrate hard work completed—that we truly do reap what we sow. To acknowledge God’s abundant blessing in our lives and prepare for the upcoming season of Thanksgiving. To remind ourselves that it’s never too late to live a productive life from which others can glean something useful.

So pile up the pumpkins, make a centerpiece of multi-colored mums, light the spice-scented candles, set the cobbler on the counter to cool. It’s fall. Time for some fall-da-ra!

Grateful for the Golden Days

September 21, 2017 by Nancy 14 Comments

In places that experience a change of seasons it happens every fall. As the days grow shorter, they seem to take on a golden hue that bathes and blesses us. I don’t know how sunlight can change color, but it clearly does. These are the golden days, and we need to embrace them and bask in them before the snow flies.

Life has golden seasons, too, doesn’t it? Several couples we know are celebrating their 50th Anniversaries this fall. My husband and I are in a second marriage, so we laugh that we’ll have to be wheeled into the activities room in assisted living if we make it to our fiftieth celebration—we’ll be 90 and 91. “Look, honey! There’s a cake!” one of us might exclaim.

Which doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate that these are golden years for us, too–and we thank God for them. A recent tragedy experienced by close friends reminds us this could change any time. But as of today we both have our health, the time and inclination to engage in activities that bring us joy, and ministries that make life worth living. We have more family members geographically close than ever before, and we love getting to spend time with them. In our own way, these are our golden years, and we are glad we know it.

I find myself wondering how to spend these glorious, golden days of fall however. What could I do to celebrate all things golden besides binge watch episodes of “The Golden Girls”—which is never a completely bad idea by the way. Maybe I could buy some goldfish to entertain the cats. I’d love to go gallivanting with a litter of Golden Retriever puppies. Or pluck a golden pear from a tree. Or listen to a golden oldies station on the radio and reprise some dance moves from the 60’s and 70’s! Or better than all that, perhaps I should look for golden opportunities to make a positive difference in the world—even to live out the golden rule.

What about you? How will you celebrate these golden days of autumn? Even if life has thrown some crises your way, can you look for the golden aspects of each day? Can you find some time just to sit on a park bench and let the warm autumn sun reach down into your soul? A quote seen on Pinterest read, “These are days we dream about when the sunlight paints us gold.” Yes! The glorious days when the sunlight paints us gold. Let’s live them fully.