The Hunt for Red October

Hi friends,

So sorry, dear readers, for the break in posting as my brain has been numbed by the summer heat. Today I was outside trimming dead palm fronds, pulling weeds, and general yard clean-up, with sweat running down my face and off my head. People, it’s September 28th! The Milwaukee temperature at three pm? Sixty-seven degrees. Here in Safety Harbor? Eighty-seven degrees. It’s finally starting to cool down from our summer temperatures in the very high nineties. Yay, fall.

I love a northern autumn and October is my favorite month of the year. The gradual change in the temperature, the crisp low 60’s/high 50’s, wearing layers, a trip to the farm for fall vegies, caramel apples, and hayrides. Halloween and pumpkin carving! Most spectacularly, the leaves changing from green to vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds. It’s a feast for the eyes. It’s a celebration of a summer enjoyed and a herald of the holiday season to come. (We won’t discuss January through April right now). 

The leaves don’t change color in Florida. Based on my limited research it has to do with the level of chlorophyll, the amount of rain and the temperature, blah, blah, blah. I’m no botanist, so, please hit the google if you want more details. From my five years of observation here in Florida, it goes like this – green, brown, down – right into the pool. I don’t even have the joy of raking up a good pile of crunchy leaves, instead I have a “pool rake” that I use daily once the actual leaf fall begins…in January. 

I’ll pull out my October decorations. Colored leafy items, Halloween themed wall hangings, my skeleton and pumpkin candle holders. I’ll celebrate fall with sweat on my brow and leave my sweaters in the closet. I’ll look at all the posts of turning leaves on social media. I’ll stand under the A/C vent and feel the crisp seventy-eight-degree air. I’ll eat some apples with caramel sauce, but I won’t carve a pumpkin because it will rot in days. I will fake it in the south this year, and maybe next year I’ll make it north for a real red October.

Much love,

Paula