Fall is here! OK, well, not really … but when I woke up this morning, there was that special tang in the air that heralds the season of dead leaves and hot spiced cider.

I grew up in Pennsylvania, but spent the past two years in Florida. My entire time there, I talked about how odd it seemed not to have “real” winters: I had moved to the Sunshine State, after all, from Cleveland, home of horrendous snow. But the white stuff wasn’t really what I missed. It was days like today — when the air has just a little bit of a nip to it, enough to give cuddling a reason; when summer isn’t quite gone, but you know Christmas is just ‘round the corner; when — to fall into Celtic mysticism — the veil between worlds weakens the most, as summer readies itself to end and winter to being. Autumn has always been my favorite season and this year, newly returned to the North, I’m perhaps enjoying it even more.

I can’t wait for the leaves to start changing …