Embracing Autumn

It takes a little while for this summer girl to embrace the autumn spirit. I love the golden light and the changing colors, but often I find myself getting down about the approaching colder weather and missing my summer Mojo!
It helps me to take a look at all of the great things about this time of year, and with all of the fun of Halloween it hasn't been hard for me recently to love this season. In fact there are quite a few reasons to love it...
People in our Brooklyn neighborhood go all out in decorating for Halloween, so the neighborhood takes on a festive feeling for these weeks.

The park beckons with leaves,

leaves,

and more leaves.

Which of course we love to collect, 

and display.

Going for drives outside of the city,

to explore,

and to visit "The Great Jack-o-Lantern Blaze" that our friend runs every year, and being awed by the sight of hundreds of jack-o-lanterns lit up all at once.

Looking up as I walked around the neighborhood a few days ago and seeing the tail end of a huge rainbow....

 And perhaps my most favorite thing about autumn...having our first fire of the season, which we did last night as the weather has suddenly turned considerable colder (I mean really last week I was still wearing sandals, now we've gotten out the puffy coats).

Two more things that I am loving lately:
~ This pumpkin seed roasting recipe from my friend Laura is truly the best one out there, totally scrumptious, worth carving another pumpkin for I think!
~ Soup! I have been making soup weekly and I can not get enough, tonight I've got squash (acorn and butternut mixture) soup on the stove, and seeded bread from the farmer's market. I can't wait to eat!

I'd love to hear what you're loving about autumn.

xo