forty things i love about autumn

i must have taken several thousand photos of this tree right outside my living room window by now. {we live in the second-floor apartment of an old house, so we dwell up in the tree tops, which makes it rather easy and inviting to take a photo of the view.} but very few make it onto my blog, because i never quite get the photo how i want it to turn out. this time, i did.

i took it just a couple days ago, but today is the first day of autumn, so though this tree is still rather green, it will not be that way for long. before i know it, the leaves will have turned to a bright gold, as they do each year without fail on this large maple tree.

anyway, i realize the quote on the photo is a little difficult to read... it says, "delicious autumn! my very soul is wedded to it, and if i were a bird i would fly about the earth seeking successive autumns." i love that... it's so me!

well, with that, i thought i would list forty of my favorite things about this, my favorite, season.

1. it's the season that holds my birthday
2. it's also the season that holds my wedding anniversary 
3. caramel apples 
4. the colors of the trees 
5. the crisp air 
6. the smells of fireplaces burning wood or piles of leaves burning in someone's yard 
7. caramel apple cider from starbucks 
8. fall has the bluest sky
9. sweater weather 
10. rain boots 
11. breaking out the stylish scarves 
12. no more hot and humid days 
13. good memories of grade school, high school and college are stirred 
14. knowing i don't have to get up to go to school anymore! 
15. walks in the forest preserves... my favorite time for photo walks 
16. looking forward to the holidays 
17. curling up under a blanket on the couch with a cup of tea and a good period film 
18. the sounds of high school football games in the distance 
19. the library opens on sundays again {after being closed on sundays all summer} 
20. pumpkin pie 
21. apple orchards 
22. spiced wine 
23. soup, soup and more soup 
24. more specifically, creamy potato soup with leeks and thyme 
25. butternut squash soup with sour cream dollops 
26. homemade bread 
27. getting to wear tights... one of my favorite fashion accessories! 
28. an excuse to shave my legs less often 
29. no one else will be more tan than me, because it's too cold to lay in the sun now *wink* {this is a new one, since this was the first summer of my life that i did not spend long periods of time outside working on my tan.} 
30. the sound of crunching leaves under my feet 
31. farmers' market 
32. cranberry peach cobbler... my thanksgiving specialty 
33. i'm that much closer to listening to my favorite christmas music 
34. bears football sundays 
35. grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup 
36. switching from iced coffee to hot coffee 
37. fall festivals 
38. no more bugs! 
39. the sound of rustling leaves blowing all around 
40. it's the season when isaac was made

oh, wow... i thought that would be an easy list to come up with. but around number 36, i had to really think about it to come up with the last few {except for no. 40, of course}.

well, i didn't get to my thirty days of forty post yesterday or the day before... but with good reason. yesterday, i was worn out from our adventures the day before. wednesday, i was gone for a good part of the day. isaac and i drove in to the city to pick up and meet one of my blog friends, stacey, from the airport. after that, we drove to the hotel where she would be staying with her husband, and we went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. we ate outside in the sidewalk cafe, and i truly had a wonderful time getting to know this person i had already considered a friend even before we met.

meeting blog friends is just so cool! and meeting stacey was no exception. she was just as lovely as i thought she would be... even more so. it was interesting, because each time i meet a blog friend, my idea of what they will sound like {or sometimes even what they will look like... though i am able to see photographs of them beforehand} is different from how they actually sound or look. and that is to be expected. but what i did not expect was to be so moved at the kindness and generosity of this blog friend. and what struck me the most was her gentle, quiet spirit.

i think stacey is one of the most incredibly talented photographers i know. but talent aside, she is definitely one of the nicest, most down-to-earth people i have ever met. she is beautiful inside and out... and i could just kick myself for not taking a single photograph of her with isaac. i had my camera with me, but these days, when i am out with isaac, it's too difficult to handle a camera while trying to handle him simultaneously. still... i should have grabbed her camera while she was holding him and snapped a shot or two.

i'm grateful that she took some pictures, though. she showed me a couple of them on the camera's screen after she snapped them, and they were amazing {of course!... she is so good}. i can't wait to see them all. one of the shots she showed me was of isaac sitting in my lap at the table. he happened to be drooling when she took it, and that was captured so endearingly in the photo. had i been taking the photo, i probably would have stopped to wipe the saliva off his mouth. but she had the sense to take the shot as is... the real isaac... capturing the true essence of what stage he is at right now.

this is what makes her such a great photographer {well, just one of many things}! it's what makes all her photos on her blog so lovely... so in the moment. it was a lesson to me... just shoot as is. so, yesterday, i did just that. i took a few photos of isaac during his tummy time and some more of him in his bumbo seat... drool and all.

i love them. this is my isaac in his day-to-day real state.

hahaha... i just had to put this one in there.
he's not always unhappy in this seat.
but he was at this moment.

and just so you don't think i never wipe his drippy mouth...

well... with cool autumn weather, brings warmer autumn clothes! i'm looking forward to dressing isaac in all his hats. he will soon be meeting three more bloggers, and i absolutely can not wait! four blog friends in less than one week? what did i do to deserved this? a blessed birthday, indeed!