I know I'm about a week late, but honestly this is the first week it's actually starting to feel like Fall. Last week was HOT!

Autumn

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,
With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,
Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,
And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!
Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,
Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;
Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;
Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;
And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,
Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves! 

It's one of my favorite seasons of the year, along with Spring. I can't decide between the two, on the one hand we're waking up from winter, everything is coming to life, flowers bloom, and the garden shows so much promise before the weeds take over. I only enjoy Summer in the mountains or on the beach... honestly it's too hot for me. Especially this past summer, when our air conditioner gave out on us and we needed a new one. Oh... but Fall! The black walnuts start to pummel our driveway, which then serve as a great driveway alarm system as you hear them pop under the car tires. The slight chill in the air before the deep freeze, when it's just nippy enough to pull out all the favorite sweaters but not so cold they are covered by winter coats. As it gets colder, it's time to fire up the wood stove, which fills the air with the wonderful smell reminiscent of campfires. With the awesome variety of trees in our yard, including hickory, oak, maple, dogwood, the leaves turn orange, golden yellow, red, brown. I think our woods look absolutely magical in the fall. Here's a glimpse:

That is our back yard (which has changed a little bit since I took this photo the first fall after we moved in). It looks amazing in the winter snow as well, but I'll wait until my winter post to share that. In any case, now you know where I get all my awesome acorn caps!

Speaking of which, I thought it would be fun to share some fall-themed needle felted wallpapers with you! I'm pretty sure there was a squirrel eyeing these as I was taking these pictures. There are two to choose from, one is a bit brighter (featured at the top of the post), and the other a bit darker (below). The links at the bottom will take you to the image in my flickr album, you can click on download at the bottom right of the image and select the size you need if you have a smaller screen. You could probably just do original size and it would still work. Images scale down just fine, they just don't scale up nicely from a small image - it comes out all pixelated and bleh. I was going to make one for a phone but with all the different phones and resolutions, they're not one size fits all. 

For the brighter acorn picture (top of post) click here.

For the darker acorn picture (above) click here.

Enjoy!