Fall

 Let's think about fall. Not the sudden downward movement of someone or something that has lost balance. I am thinking about the season between the end of summer and the beginning of winter. 2021 feels like the longest fall season of my life. I left my home just a week after peak fall color. I experienced peak fall colors in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. Now here it is nearly mid-November and Rhode Island is still pretty. Fall colors are somewhat muted by the sea but some maples and oaks are gorgeous. Yesterday we drove north for an hour and a half. Although the beech and birch trees were bare, that left more room for the oaks to show off their bronze, gold, orange and scarlet colors. The grass is still green and lush. Leaves fell as we walked through the town of Sturbridge. When I was a child I enjoyed running up and down our road trying to land each foot on a leaf. My hips hurt just thinking about all the jumping I did. I tried to catch some Massachusetts leaves in my hand as they fell. Some leaves were huge. I carried one maple leaf because it was pretty and large enough for me to wear as a hat. One lady who was watching the firing of the cannon-ball cannon with us remarked on the beauty of my leaf. Spring is my favorite season but fall is also nice. At the beach sand fleas bite my legs if I am bare legged but I prefer sand fleas over deer ticks.