Fall

This is a lovely time of year.  I want to bask in the glorious weather all day long.  Hello garden full of pumpkins and a few tenacious tomatoes!  Hello mowing and weeding and spreading mulch!  Hello Roo's tricycle pedaled out to the bend in the road.  Hello Moo's chalk scritches and scratches on the driveway and sidewalk, waiting for Daddy to get home from work.  (Hello even to the deck that needs to be stained and the side yard that needs to be reclaimed from the monster goldenrod and butterfly bushes.  (It's a mess!))

I also want to give a shout about my absolute favorite picture book for harvest time, because I only discovered it a year or so ago, and it is a gem.  Are all y'all acquainted with the Caldecott winner from 1980, Ox-Cart Man, by Donald Hall, wonderously and beautifully illustrated by Barbara Cooney?  (Incidentally, also check out her 1959 Caldecott winner, Chanticleer and the Fox, a retelling of a Chaucer tale.)  If not, grab it from the library the next time you're about, and enjoy the idyllic homage to a simple farm life.

If I get my photos uploaded, I have a pumpkin pie post to do next...  Pie!