Autumn Heaven

Autumn is a place

where colors richly dwell

and collected sighs, contented, 

bid falling leaves farewell.

- Unknown

If I lived in the same town as autumn, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to concentrate.  I would wear sweat shirts, drink cider and crunch through fallen leaves every day.  I'd have to suspend real life from September through November to watch every single leaf fall. 

LtDan and I visited our dear friends Kathy and Billy last weekend in North Carolina.  It was g.l.o.r.i.o.u.s.

After thunderstorms in Texas calmed down and a delayed flight crew arrived from Mexico, we finally got out of the airport and winged it half way across the country to arrive well past midnight.  Then we stayed up talking until much wee-er hours than anyone whose age doesn't end in -teen should.

We slept indulgently late, and after eating a huge breakfast including biscuits and gravy at the local restaurant, we spent most of the day rocking the hours away on the front porch (one of my favorite places in the world), watching the leaves fall and basking in the autumn sunshine.  The yard full of leaves was thrilling for me, but then of course I don't have to rake them :o)

Saturday we took a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The day was overcast and a little gray, but that didn't stop the leaves in every color from yellow to gold to red to orange from stealing the show.  Who needs sunshine when the leaves are glowing from within?

We spent Sunday afternoon around a backyard barbecue grill beside a private pond, and had the most amazing fish caught right out of Key West.  A little football, a little Nascar, lots of laughing, some story swapping, and a fun game of LeftCenterRight made a perfect fall day of it.

Although fall is my absolute favorite season, I suppose it's a good thing I don't live in North Carolina, where even a trip to the grocery store down the street looks like a scene from a movie called Perfect Autumn.  

I thought that our Texas trees had begun to change their summer colors for fall; indeed, I thought in Texas we had a proper fall - but I stand corrected, because now I know the truth:  fall lives in North Carolina.