Scissors and paper

I've been in California for meetings at Sizzix and decided to just play on the airplane. 

I took out my tiny scissors and snipped. It made me smile.

Pumpkin joy

Don't you love rituals? 

Repetition isn't boring to me; it's pleasure.

 

So it's no surprise that for me, autumn wouldn't be autumn without a visit to Gordon's Skagit Farm, where I sketch to my heart's content during October. And bring home all the goodness of fall on a farm...

Pies and stuffed pumpkins perfume our kitchen; pear tarts and applesauce and pumpkin chili fill our bellies. Walnut ink simmers on the back burner.

And I sketch the entire thing, snip out leaves from paper, begin the Christmas list and letter like a madwoman with that gorgeous walnut ink.

 Gordon's is the perfect place for a crisp fall afternoon...

What are your favorite fall rituals?

Are you, like I, besotted with the wild assortment of pumpkin varieties? 

Do you hunger for squash and apples when the weather turns chill?

If you happen to live in the Northwest and the answer is yes, come to Gordon's, where the bounty will fill your eyes and delight you. I dare you to try it... 

or another local farm where you can feast your eyes on brilliant color and drink local cider, pick a bushel basket of apples and haul home autumn, fresh and delicious.

Every time a new season arrives, I find myself thinking it's the best one ever. 

Ever in my life.

This autumn has taken my breath away.

We pick the last of the year's huckleberries in the woods and sprinkle them on morning's yogurt.

Delicious moments together are as fleeting and rare as the storybook mushrooms we stumbled across on a hike along the woods beside the shore.

Rare gems like the bear finding a last snack before hibernation are the icing on the cake. 

There is nothing like autumn, delicious autumn.

And this is the best one of all.