clio and the great pumpkin patch

It is definitely fall here in Oregon.  The wind has a bite to it that wasn't there just three weeks ago and the rain has been showing up more frequently.  Last week I climbed into my car before driving to work, the world still dark around me, and the temperature gauge told me it was 41 degrees outside.  For the first ten minutes of my drive I could not get over the fact that it is only the middle of October and it's already colder than it ever is during the dead of winter in Los Angeles.  I think I've finally realized that I, as a born and raised Californian, am in for a rough first winter here.

Nevertheless, I think this may actually be the first time in life when I have actually felt like the weather outside my door accurately reflects the mentality -and sentimentality- of the start of the holiday season.  It was 84 degrees in Los Angeles today and 72 degrees in the California city where I grew up.  Not very fall-like but so very typical of this time of year down there.  Beautiful for sure but not much changes there through the seasons.  I'm finding that there is a novelty in doing fall and holiday activities in this kind of weather.

It was the novelty that made me so excited to take Clio to the pumpkin patch this year.  When we first moved up here I was very much looking forward to the experience of milling around red-orange pumpkins with family and friends, all of dressed in our warm sweaters and boots.  I imagined scarecrows and corn maizes and farmer's market produce and hot apple cider.  Aside from the scarecrow I think that my imagined day matched up pretty closely to the actual event.

It was a great day.  So much so that some of us needed a little break by the end.