This is my favorite season

Kathleen Anderson

October is my favorite month of the year. I enjoy the moderate weather, the beautiful colorful leaves that adorn the trees, the shorter days and longer nights and all the holiday festivities that begin.

I love everything about the fall season. The cold that will affect my creaky joints has not yet begun. The weather becomes more interesting and so does the food. Soups and stews come back to our menu, and the oven aromas that spread throughout the house feed my soul as well as my stomach.

Baking becomes a fun thing again, and recipes come to mind for pumpkin bread, cookies and apple everything.

I don’t have to get to the grocery store by 8 a.m. anymore to beat the heat. And while I am not normally a sports nut, I will follow the Mariners' trip to the playoffs and root for them with all my heart.

My grandbabies will soon be wearing their adorable hats and beanies again, and so will I. Bad hair days will only be known by me, instead of being shared with the world.

And speaking of grandbabies, our annual trip to the pumpkin farm will soon take place, along with numerous other events that can be enjoyed by several generations of families. They already have their costumes ready for Halloween, and more pictures will be taken and revisited in the coming years.

We will begin thinking about Thanksgiving dinner and what to do this year with the leftovers and Christmas shopping will start, or end, depending on what treasures have already been found and tucked away.

The great-granddaughter, her partner and my great-great-grandson who have been here for the past six months will return to California to live, and my daughter, who has been working from home since COVID struck, is going back to work in her office.

The house will be quiet again.

It will take some getting used to, but I am looking forward to it. Young people and babies are very busy, and I have slowed down quite a bit. I will miss them but am very grateful I got to share the baby’s first steps and first birthday with him.

Willow The Warrior, my other one-year-old great-grandson will still be next door, but Prairie, his big sister, has returned to school. We’ll make more memories in the coming months, and I look forward to being a part of them.

Perhaps I am partial to the season of fall because I am in what I consider the autumn of my life. I have so much to be grateful for but still so much to look forward to. And best of all I get to spend it in the Pacific Northwest.

Kathleen Anderson writes this column each week from her home in Olympia.  Contact her at  kathleen@theJOLTnews.com or post your comment below.