There was no such thing as "fall" growing up in Juneau. The seasons quickly transition from kind of nice and sometimes crappy, to almost always crappy and very rarely nice. It's not even the kind of cute cold weather where you get to wear leather boots and tights and wool coats with two buttons. That would last 5 minutes before you were a frozen wet sloppy mess who smelled like wet dog and looked even worse. The leaves don't change colors, they just fall off. There are no pumpkin patches or apple picking or exciting new things at the farmers market (because there isn't one!) And October is definitely not the right time of year to pick up hiking. It's all sort of charming and wonderful in its own right (if you're used to it, anyway), but it's not fall.
Fall last year involved a lot of bike rides, fireplace fires, and baking cookies. Two years ago it was terrible parties at The Big Nasty, and going pumpkin picking at a farm outside of the city. Three years ago it was kicking leaves, apartment parties, and lots of baking gingery pumpkiny things with Schliebe. My first year here I had just moved, was in school, and living on one of the worst blocks in downtown Seattle. I'm pretty sure fall then consisted of trying not to get mugged, eating entire loaves of pumpkin bread from Cinnamon Works with my roommate, and long hours spent making patterns and sewing my fingers to my homework. All wonderful(ish) memories.
What I'm getting at here- is that fall this year is kind of lacking. While I love our apartment and I love just being at home in the quiet- I feel like I'm missing out on one of the best seasons ever (you know, aside from those other three). And I do realize that summer just ended, but since fall is my newly discovered favorite season, I feel like I really need to do it justice this year. I have every intention of dragging Matao to a pumpkin patch, dragging him on at least one long bike ride, and at least one not-so-long hike, but the whole baking cookies/crocheting hats/being excited about wearing tights thing is sort of lost of him. Poor boy. So, kind of sort of but not really inspired by Amy's wonderful post on books and book stores, I'm compiling my list of my fall essentials.
- These are a requirement. I have been making them for years, and aside from the ginger heart cookies at Paradise Cafe in Juneau- I have yet to find anything that even touches on being this wonderful. I made my own vegan version all last year, and they turned out perfectly.
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- Dearest Inez on Etsy has all of these wonderful little accessories made out of felt leaves that I love love love. I want four of her big earrings in different colors.
- Where to find U-Pick farms in Seattle, and the rest of Washington This seems to be the best resource for U-Pick farms that I've found. There are options for everything.
- Search for "Autumn" on Etsy. In typical Etsy fashion- lots of lovely, ugly, weird, beautiful, and tacky. I also love searching for "Ghost" and finding all of the lovely, non-tacky or Halloween themed things.
- Bite sized bacon caramels? Holy wtf? This has nothing to do with fall (other than the orange colors) but I feel like I need to work this into some sort of gathering at some point. Whoa.
Whatchu up to? What are your fall requirements?
9 comments:
Juneau is still unusally nice. Clear blue skies and a bit coldish. Never mind the fact that we have a wind advisory in effect for gusts up to 70 MPH. that just makes it more fun. haha. But seriously, these past six months have been absolutely amazing as far as our weather goes.
Why does that only happen when I'm not there? The last summer I spent at home I think it didn't rain for a total of 12 days! I always somehow manage to always get crap!
I think it goes in cycles. I think last summer we went 14 days without rain? but remember 5 years ago when it was really awesome out and we ate ice cream all the time? I think I heard that the year before that was crap too. In five more years we will have another awesome summer. and in 4 it will be horrible. ha!
P.S. the spelling in my last post is truly amazing.
bacon caramels= salted caramels. that's my theory...you can put anything sweet and salty together and it will be dangerously delicious. marianne made bacon brownies at work mmmmm...yay fall! after our pumpkin party let's have a fire and get drink whiskey and cider!
Cider, spiked cocoa. Actually, spiked everything. Bread, cookies, brownies, pie pie pie. Putting my big huge comforter on the bed. Tights in a thousand colors. Boots. Scarves not made with wool. Hats. Snuggling up with a book or five. Running from a hot bath into my bathrobe. Watching movies nonstop. Listening to the wind outside. Walks outdoors until my cheeks are bright red.
And you, if I can get it.
Steffani and Becca (C)- the weekend Steff is planning on visiting we're going to the Bastyr thing, as well as going to a pumpkin patch- Becca you should come with Steff!
those earrings are super cute!
Is that the weekend of the 23rd? If so, I can't go! I have class that weekend and Run Like Hell on Sunday.
Boopants.
pumpkin beer! fall definitely isn't fall until you can drink pumpkin beer.
also, i love me some roasted veggies when it starts to get cold outside. pumpkin/squash, eggplant, potatoes, and other root veggies, drizzled with olive oil and rosemary. it's my favorite fall meal, i think.
and speaking of bacon caramels--salted caramel cupcakes at Cupcake Royale scream fall to me also.
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