Hello Girlfriends! I just want to say, your touching comments about our Dads (!), the Peter Rabbit Room, Domesticity City, and the newest recipes, plus all the connections we’ve been making with one another have made me so happy; I’ve been trying to think of a way to show you how much I’ve enjoyed reading them! This Fall Giveaway is the result! xo
Plus, October arrives this weekend! So let’s celebrate all us kindred spirit vagabonds and our wild gypsy blood with this . . .
. . . gorgeous quilt, which will soon be in the hands of some lucky winner! All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment at the bottom of this post, and answer one simple little question: What’s YOUR favorite thing about fall? ♣ Here are some hints and possibilities, to get your clock a tickin’ . . .
If you win, you could do this with your new, old, vintage quilt, and that might be your most favorite thing about fall this year. Putting the sweet in Home Sweet Home.♥
Or maybe you love outsmarting the first freeze and getting the last of the tomatoes in from your garden to ripen on the window sill… because they look so darn cute up there!
Or is it the cozy quiet back-to-school kind of morning when you’re alone in the kitchen with the cinnamon toast?
Or is it the way your house smells with your little dinners of acorn squash and homemade chicken and mushroom soup? That could definitely be it! ♣
You could eat that soup in front of this wonderful old movie, which if you haven’t seen, you would love. Have dinner with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. Bring your twelve-year-old daughter. ♥ ♥ ♥
Or maybe the change of season is so wonderful because we get to have more fires, turn off all the lights and pretend it’s 1840.
Or could it be the sound the leaves make when we crunch through them and kick them into the air? Don’t we just love it when they cartwheel down the road, tip to tip? Or, when we get to make wishes on the ones we catch in mid-air?
Or is it this, the smell of cedar, juniper trees, bayberry, musky rotting leaves, thick dampness in the air, salt and ocean; being swept along the dirt road by the wind filled with flying leaves; looking at Joe, cute in his black beret, the woodland around us laced with spider webs sparkling with dew on foggy mornings . . . could this be it? Yes, it could!
Or, it could be when we reach under the leaves to discover the freebies in the compost heap, volunteers we didn’t plant? We even got a spaghetti squash this year!
♣ ♣ ♣
It’s a season of the little things in life that make it so special. Let the fun begin! What do you love most about the sweetest season? And btw, not to forget, Hellooooo down there in Aussie Land and everyone south of the equator! Tell us all what it is about spring that makes you fall in love all over again??? Inquiring minds want to know! xoxo Have a wonderful Day! You have until midnight tomorrow night (Wednesday Sept. 28 est.) to comment and be entered!
With Love from the Heart of the Home and Me! ♥
I love Autumn —it comes along just in time to cool the earth and refresh the mind. Warm sweaters, cozy quilts, soups cooking in the kitchen—And for us our anniversary! Every anniversary for 43 years we take a trip to celebrate our love of each other—sometimes just a overnight or two at a bed and breakfast in the mountains or a wonderful trip to Europe. We are so blessed and Autumn seems to celebrate with us!
This Fall marks three years of surviving bone cancer. I celebrate each Sept. for being able to enjoy another Fall, my favorite time of year when everything is changing such beautiful colors. The quilt will be such a comfort following my weekly chemo treatment. Thanks for such a lovely giveaway.
Giving you a huge high five and sending love!
I love the crisp Autumn air, and being able to wear sweaters. I love all the “Cool weather” recipes I can make and the fact that it won’t be long til Thanksgiving. I also love the Coziness of all the family gathered indoors on Chilly nights, and the sound of the leaves “crunching” under our feet as we go for walks in the Autumn Sunshine. I hope everyone is having a Peaceful day filled with Happiness and Contentment!!! Tina in Ky
I look forward to our neighborhood Halloween block party in Pittsburgh, PA. We block off the street to traffic (with the municipality’s permission) so the children can trick or treat without the worry of crossing the street. After trick or treat, the neighborhood gets together for a potluck of appetizers and desserts, spiced cider and a campfire with s’mores. It’s great to get together with the neighbors before it snows and we all hibernate!
I also love football! Go Steelers!
My favorite thing about fall is the colorful foliage on the trees.
Susan, your blog brings me pure joy. I cried when I read about your visit with your dad. I lost my father when I was only 5 years old. Anyways, I too love Autumn but it hasn’t really surfaced here in Sacramento. It will be a few weeks before we start feeling the cool breezes. When I think of fall my mind wanders to high school football games, candle lit evenings, handmade throws, nights made cozy with the glow of the fireplace and down comforters. Thank you for brightening my life with your creative ideas! You’re AWESOME.
Five years old. That must have been hard. Sending love . . .
Chestnuts, I love fall, it’s sweet soft sun, and best of all, picking chestnuts, cooking or roasting them… and of course, eating them!
I believe I cn’t take part at this game because I live in France… Snif!
I think you can! I will send it to whoever wins it, as long as they live on planet earth and have a mailman.
I will volunteer to hand-deliver it if Nicole wins! I LOVE France! 🙂
There might be a fight over that one! 🙂
Okay, fine, Susan….I’ll let you come along! 🙂
waouh!!!!! it took me over ten minutes to find my comment!
Thank you girls, you are wellcome… I live 25 minutes from the heart of Paris!
Glad you found us, we’ve been having fun with you Nicole!
I love the cool fresh breeze that replaces the hot, humid air of summer; the brilliant deep blue of the sky against the colored leaves and (most importantly), I have an October birthday!!
Happy Birthday to you too Susan!
Dear Susan, what a nice thing to do! Love the crisp mornings, colors and the warm afternoons. Friends, who just this moment came bearing still warm zuchinni cookies. The coffee is on. Our house decorated with Fall treasures collected through 50 years of marriage. So enjoy your blog. Especially your train trip. Longtime fan. Thank you for all the love and happiness you bring to all of us.
Thank you back Bev xoxo
Oooooh, Autumn – a time to reflect and a time to plan. During the days making the most of the fading warmth and putting the garden to bed for Winter, tucking it in with pea straw and love. While in the evening glow bringing out the Winter woolies, airing them and planning the coming months hunkered down with stitching and fireside games with friends and family and the seasonal hot chocolate. The distant aroma of cinnamon and cloves announcing the arrival of Winter.
Walking through heaps of fallen leaves and kicking them around! The smell in the air. The first frosts. My birthday. Shiny brown chestnuts that just fell from the tree. Halloween. And, since I had my very first bit last autumn – pumpkin pie!
Happy Birthday!!
Oh, Susan! So hard to pick ONE favorite! But, one that’s so very dear to my heart is the memory of my mother reciting “Little Orphant Annie” to me on our front porch swing when I was a little girl. October was always chilly in northern Indiana, so we’d snuggle and look at the moon and I’d pretend to be scared at the “goblins” part. What a treasure!
Fall is a time for me to “come back in the house”. I wear my jeans and long sleeved shirts again, I cook differently, more comfort food things, meatloaf and baked potatoes, cut out cookies, apple pie. I LOVE new crop apples. I love the smell and the darkness that arrives earlier – though I do wish we could have more daylight in the mornings. In early fall I lovethe warm days and cool nights.
It seems like the season of contentment for me. It makes me feel good.
The incredible autumn sky – those fluffy clouds that blow around in the wind that invigorates!
Oh what a lovely quilt and giveaway! The problem is, I love everything about Fall…how can I choose only one? Of course, there are frosty mornings…flannel sheets at night…beautiful explosions of color…which soon become crunchy leaves underfoot! It’s the season for soups, a time for baking…sunny afternoons giving way to cool evenings…and FOOTBALL (which encompasses food and fellowship). What a cozy season Autumn is 🙂
I love Fall for so many reasons but most of all because it means Christmas is just around the corner.
my favorite part of fall is APPLES!!! we love going to the apple orchard, picking more than we will ever use and sampling some along the way, topping it off with cider and donuts!!!
I have always loved fall. My birthday is the first day of fall. Every year in grade school I would get a new winter coat for my birthday present from my parents. Of course I insisted on wearing it to school—no matter what the temperature was. I can remember standing in line for lunch in my big green furry parka!
Happy Birthday Nancy!
I love, and longlingly miss, the gorgeous October Glory maple leaves! And the bright orange pumpkins, and the corn stalks on everybody’s front porches…and we can’t forget the crisp Autumn winds that whip your hair around your face! The leaves don’t change here in Arizona, unless we’re up north, and then we only get yellow leaves on the Aspens. Fall is the season I miss the most.
My favorite thing about fall is…it reminds me of my mother as fall was her favorite season! So, when the leaves begin to color and fall to the earth, I think of her and I still, as always, will miss her.
I love time with girlfriends in the fall… I am slowly reading through all your comments – and savoring them…
Some of my girlfriends came over for a bonfire the other night, hotdogs, marshmallows and spiced cider, yum. Cooking with girlfriends, making bread and soup and apple butter. Decorating each others houses for the holidays… even though they tease me about my hundreds of pumpkins in all shapes and sizes. Tucked in one of our family rooms with a blanket, cup of hot tea and our Bibles for a night of study and discussion. Taking a walk together on a sunny afternoon. I don’t know what I would do without my girlfriends.
Me either, and I also love homemade marshmallows! I have a good recipe for them in my Autumn Book in case anybody is wondering!
I AGREE…what would I do without my Dear Girlfriends…the ones that will be there for life….Some of them will be happy to know you Susan…I will tell them…
Will love to meet them!
It would have to be our annual trip to the orchard to pick apples. There is nothing quite like biting into a fresh picked apple!
I love the cooler weather…crisp, clear, clean fall days combined with the smell of autumn leaves and even an early fire in the hearth.
I love everything about fall. The golden glow from the trees, the smell of apples and Concord grapes in the orchard, the cooler weather, the excuse to make hearty soups and stews, not to mention pumpkin and apple pies! But what I love most is the cozy feeling of my home. The morning light softened by the heavy curtains that I hang to keep out the cold. The beds fluffed mile high with down blankets and quilts. The fire crackling in the fireplace. The quieted footfalls from the warm rag rugs and woven runners in warm colors of red and gold. I like to think of it as a glorified squirrel’s nest. And I’m ready to hibernate after a summer of busyness!
My favorite~ The smell of Fall. Leaves,pumpkins and apples. Sheets and quilts washed and line dried mmmm….smell so good! Clean windows,I even washed the screens with soapy water. Love it!
My favorite things about fall are the cooler temperatures and the leaves changing colors…I live in an area of southwestern pa that is simply beautiful all year round, but fall is one of times that it really shines ♥
Wow! So gorgeous! My absolute favorite thing about fall is cuddling under a quilt by the fire and “watching” college football with my husband. He watches; I look at quilting magazines or hand-stitch my most current quilting project.
Checking your blog is a highlight of my day. I love everything you make, all your artwork, your home, your encouraging words. You are an inspiration to me.
Love,
Laura Lee
My favorite thing about fall is walking on leaf-covered sidewalks to the library while stepping on acorns, pecans, leaves, and sticks and hearing the crunching sounds.
Fall in our home starts the creative season. My husband makes his way out to his wood shop and starts working on handmade Christmas gifts for our children…..beautiful walnut trays or one year he made then all candlestick end tables. As for me it’s the sewing machine….I am making our new granddaughter a quilt as a remembrance of her very first Christmas. I guess you could say fall through the holidays is our very favorite time of year. While all this activity is going on there is pumpkin bread baking in the oven and soup simmering on the stove. Happy Fall To Everyone!
I love the change of lighting and the freshness in the air. It urges me on to clean-up the gardens and freshen the house and prepare to settle into the new season.
Fall is one of my favorite seasons! I love the colors. I love the coolness of the evenings. I love the food and holidays. I love a break from mowing the yard 🙂
What dont I love!!!! If I had to pick one, it would have to be the smells!! Everything!!! The musty leaves, the smell of woodsmoke.A pot roast in the oven. Cinnamon, apples ,pumpkins. Pumpkin latte’s and hot caramel apple cider!! I love it all!!
I love the time of year- when you can pull on a sweater on a nice cool evening and it be enough- no winter coats are needed….to bind you up and stiffle you….i love the color or the leaves- and the smells in the air- and its soup time- homemade veggie or chili- yummmmmmmmmmm- or to just relax with a good book on the porch in the afternoon- with the sun hitting you just right- but at 5 or so you know-you will need to skeeeeeeedaddddddddddle inside and build that fire….take the chill off the evening…..you can smell the promise of winter coming soon with the first frost that hits the fall foliage….Fall -my favorite time of year!
I love because it just feels cozy!!
My favorite thing about fall….oh, so many! Driving to see the colors in the country and stopping to buy fresh apple cider to bring home…making a pot of chili on the first cold night….decorating the house w/leaves, pumpkins, and candles….
I just returned from seeing the aspens in Colorado in their beautiful colors and saw a mother bear and her cub before it will be den time for them. God is good.
My favorite thing about fall is marching band.
The smell of the air (that rotting leaves smell with a little wood smoke mixed in if I’m lucky), the bright blue sky on a sunny fall day in Colorado and most of all the sound of the aspen leaves quaking in the wind 😉
I don’t know if I can narrow it down to one thing honestly. I love to sit outside on the porch and feel the cool air blowing around me, and hear the crackling of the crisp leaves in the air. The smells of Autumn are divine! I love looking at baskets of beautiful pink lady and braeburn apples, and drinking my first Pumpkin Pie Chai of the year, because I just can’t drink it in any other season! I love cuddling up under a blanket with my windows open so I can feel the breeze even in my sleep. I love how my hands start to itch because I want to start crafting and making. I knit, crochet, and sew like a mad woman in the Fall. I could go on and on for hours about this….. I definitely Fall in love with Fall… every year! It’s a relationship that I can always count on!
XOXO
Kristina
Oh my goodness! Just the possibility of winning the quilt is exciting!
Fall is my absolute favorite time of year for a multitude of reasons, but I just love the colors. I live in the northwest and while it is nothing compared to New England, the leaves changing and blowing across the roadway just thrill me. I love the smell of wood smoke from burn piles and chimneys and I love making soup! I guess you could say I love everything about it! I decorate more for fall than any other season!
Susan Branch, you fill my bucket! 🙂 In our house that means you restore my soul!
I get the full bucket thing, I’m feeling it right now!!!
Thank you for sharing your life with us, both the struggles and the triumphs. You inspire me!
Relief from the blazing hot, Texas sun is a big plus…to start with! 🙂
I enjoy anything fleece..so bring on the fleece comforters, fleece robes, fleece lined sweatshirts, fleecy slippers and mittens.
Watching the leaves fall and discovering that trees, without leaves, are truly Mother Nature’s sculptures. Of course, out come the squirrels busily harvesting the pecans that cover the ground.
There is nothing like coming in from the cool breezes of fall to the fragrance of a home made stew simmering in a crock pot. Heaven!
Marilyn (in Dallas)
I love the cool, crisp air of autumn and the beautiful colors of fallen leaves that cover the ground. And I love to be able to pull out my warm & cozy sweaters to wear. I also look forward hopefully to the possibility of a visit to the Central Coast of California, which I love any time, but especially during Fall & Winter.
With this much Love in the world, how can anything ever go wrong??? Seems impossible…love all these comments!
Because it is us WOMEN replying- hahaha- just kidding.
We are so good together…never so much support in the whole world as when we are together!
I love taking a quick trip to our local apple orchard to pick apples (our favorites are the Mutsus & Ida Reds) The Ida Reds make delicious, tarty applesauce and because it is so tender, you can leave the peel on the apple, making the applesauce a nice rosy color. The Mutsus are about the best “just plain eating” apple I’ve ever tasted, but they also make a fantastic apple crisp (cobbler) 🙂
How incredibly generous of you! Fall is all good and the birthday month for my husband and me so lots of celebrating, birthday month, birthday week, even birthday eve! But if I need to pick just one thing, I agree it is the difference in the light. I’ll be rushing out to walk the dog and gradually notice the change of the light even though it is the same time of day. It’s sort of more golden, taking on the fall colors I guess and the shadows fall differently. It makes me feel different almost in a primal sort of way. Then I want to go back home and sort of nest and cook things all fall to eat in front of the fireplace.
Fall is in my DNA. I was born and reared in Southwestern PA and fall was the best time of year to be a kid. Alas, I moved away in 1987 and have not enjoyed fall since. I lived in Charleston SC for 7 years and Orlando FL for 17 years. But, miracle of miracles. . . I just recently (2 weeks ago) moved to Franklin TN. A quintessential American hometown and boy, am I ever enjoying all of the things that my DNA was crying out for. . . . leaves, cool weather, locally grown pumpkins and gourds, sweaters, cowboy boots, open windows, no humidity. . I could go on and on.
I visited my family in PA every October for the last ten years because I would be such a crab by October. . 90 degrees with humidity is not what I would call fall weather. Orlando is a town that knows how to “pretend” really well but you cannot “pretend” fall. It just is the most magical, homey time of year to me!
I have so many things I love about Fall!! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, apple pie, apple picking with my kids, smell of fallen leaves, the colors, the sound of the geese flying south for the winter, going to the Adirondak Mountains to see the foliage………the list could go on and on. I think my most favorite thing is getting out my warm and cozy quilts on a cold night.
I love going to the nursery and picking out the perfect color mums, pumpkins, and gourds, bringing it all home and decorating the front of the house. The bright oranges and reds of the season are my favorite too.
Fall is my favorite time of the year for many reasons. First of all in Virginia, the temperature is just right in October. I think my most favorite thing about fall is the smell, from the wonderful outside smells of drying leaves to the fragrant kitchen smells of wonderful soups and spices in pumpkins and different squash recipes. Then there are the glorious colors of fall. Choosing fabrics to use in quilts to represent the colors outdoors. It is a “most” wonderful time of the year.
My favorite thing about fall is pumpkins. I use them all over inside and outside our home for decorations. We also eat pumpkins, seed included. And the smell of pumpkin candles and pumpkin pies and bread are the best!
I love the smell of fall. The smell of the cold air, the smell of smoke from a chimney. The smell of the woods in fall is different than in spring or summer. It smells like the heart of the earth. I love just putting my face in a pile of leaves. The smell of cinnamon and apples. The smell of freshly laundered sweaters. There are so many things to love about fall, but I couldn’t do without those.
What a wonderful giveaway, Ms. Branch. Thank you (as always) for thinking of us. There has to be some kind of award for “Greatest Blog Ever Created” that you could win, right? We’d vote for you.
Would be nothing without you, and I’d vote for you too! So nice Andrea, thank you!
Wow… Thanks. *huge smile*. I just wanted to mention that I made enough corn chowder so that I could take some in to the girls at work last night and they LOVED it, of course. (I even managed to save enough bacon for the topping.) My favorite responce was from a young lady of 19 who said, “I’ve never wanted to lick the inside of a bowl so badly in all of my life.” It just made me giggle. Thanks again.
Oh thank you for doing that! Such a nice thing for them! They must love you!
There is absolutely nothing about fall that I don’t love…it is so cozy. The hints that Mother Nature gives us that we should be loving these moments, because they are fleeting, are spectacular….not really hints, more like a jolt! A jolt, a splash, a whole bucketful of color, saying, pssst, remember me….even though white is a flattering color….these colors will set your heart on fire…So take these moments and pause, breath deeply, I will come again, but for now just love me…
xox
My favorite thing about Fall is my grandson’s birthday. He was born late on October 30th and I was pulling for a Halloween baby because that is my second favorite thing about Fall.
Living in the south, the thing that autumn brings me is relief. Fall’s cooler temperatures brings relief from the “oppression of summer” (like some of the old folks term it around here.) Hey, I’m ready! ‘Tis still hot here, but just thinking about my first fire makes me smile big time. Soon, and very soon…
To me besides all the amazing colors and smells that fall envokes it means that the “blues and stripers” are running and that I get to go fishing with my Dad! we have gone every fall for the past 50yrs!!! Even though we go other times with the rest of the family, this day is just him and I, we always bring home enough to fill the freezer and the memories are PRICELESS.
ps thank you
Ahhh Autumn – what’s not to love….. but my most favourite thing is enjoying beautiful sunny days (like we had today) but not feeling guilty about drawing the curtains and lighting a fire in the grate in the evening. And after tea watching the new Downton Abbey series with a cat on your lap to keep you warm…. oh and a bit of crochet to keep the fingers busy. And then shining in the distance (but not too close to frighten the crafter in you) a bit of Christmas magic.
Oh, what a generous giveaway! I find it nearly impossible to say all that I love about fall. One thing is that for me, I suppose because of Back to School, fall has always seemed like a season of new beginnings, even more than the actual new year in January. And I love the cozy colors and scents of fall; the bright leaves against the blue, blue autumn sky; the smell of leaves crunching underfoot, the smell of apples … I have such wonderful childhood memories of going to an apple orchard. Not a pick-your-own place. We bought the ‘drop” apples which were already picked up and waiting in wooden boxes in a big red barn where the very air was heady with the aroma of apples. No, I can’t possibly say what I love best about fall. I just love it all.
It’s so hard to choose my favorite thing, because Fall is my very favorite time of year! (excepting of course, Christmas!)…..But if I have to choose, I’d have to say putting out the mums and pumpkins for decoration, the big Halloween Parades and the kids in their costumes on trick or treat (I sit outside on my porch in my rocking chair to hand out the treats!), and SOUP!
I love autumn for all of the reasons you mentioned, Susan, but most of all I love it because my birthday ‘falls’ right in the middle of October – one more reason to celebrate the season.
Big reason! Happy Birthday, fall into a pile of leaves for me!
I love everything about fall! I love the cooler temperatures, the falling leaves which are so fun to jump in. I love the smell of wood burning fireplaces and leaves. Going for walks and making leaf rubbings with the leaves my kids collect. I love some gooey marshmellows roasted at the firepit with good friends. I love to put more blankets on the bed and snuggle just a few more minutes in the morning. I truly love taking a trip to the mountains to pick apples and then spending days getting those apple ready for delicious baked treats………….I can’t wait till it feels more like fall here in Virginia.
I love fall- everything about it. I live in the northern part of Alberta Canada and we’ve already had a wisp of snow. One thing I like is the smells of autumn. Harvesters going till dawn and high bush cranberries in the swamp…
Gwen, we lived in Northern Minnesota (just south of the Canadian border) 18 years ago and I remember the smell of the high bush cranberries in the woods in the Fall. We used to cook and can syrup from them to put on pancakes and also on rice pudding… 🙂 It was such a distinct smell of the Fall…
I love the crispness in the fall air, walking through the woods and fallen leaves. Fall is the best time of year for smells, fireplaces outside, the warm smell of a favorite receipt as you walk in the front door, the change of the season coming through the air. What’s not to like about fall?!!
Best season EVER! I love the beauty of the leaves changing, the smell of apples at the market, hunting for the perfect pumpkin, using the oven again to cook things like meatloaf and potroast and making soups and chili, mums, quilts on the beds…ahhhh autumn…I love you so!
Everything you said 🙂
and the smell of woodsmoke when I am taking an early morning walk.
The lovely colours of the trees is one of my favourite things, closing all the shutters in the evenings and sitting in front of the fire. Also the roads are quieter now the holiday makers have all gone (I live in France) we can take a picnic by the lake and be the only ones there………lovely. Linda
Where do I even begin? I love Fall for all the reasons you mentioned. Plus, all three of my sons were born in the Fall. I love coming home on a cool, rainy Fall late afternoon and lighting pumpkin scented candles. I love making cookies and/or casseroles that make the house smell fantastic. I especially love the cooler weather after a long summer of Texas heat. Love, Love your blog!
I think my favorite thing is finding ways to pretend that our season here in South Florida has changed because that can be a stretch on certain sizzling days ! This year it was a delight to see my grandson in the seat of the cart at our local craft store holding two little kid size scarecrows ! I’ve got some little Autumnal scenes about the house and I can swear when I walk by them that the leaves are crunching underfoot and cider is in the air ! Whatever it takes is my motto ! ;.) Lots of love and Color, jen
OMGoodness! Fall is my favorite season, so it is hard to choose. My family would always know Fall had arrived when I made a big pot of Autumn Soup with Cornbread! It became a tradition. Also with the darkness coming earlier, lighting a Pumpkin Spice candle, turning the lights down and making a fire in the fireplace. Making everything cozy and all smelling good when the husband and kids came in it would be wonderful! Oh, one more thing! Driving up to Oak Glen, CA to where the apples grow! The apples so crunchy and good, having Apple Cider and Caramel Apples. Everything just smells so wonderful! I always feel so blessed that we have plenty to enjoy and share – God is Good! Just enjoying the bounty of the season (coming from a long line of farmers/gardeners). Ok, I know its time to stop, but I could go on and on:D
I loved that quilt from the moment I saw that you got it on your trip – I would give it a good home! Pick me please! Thank you for the joy to bring into our lives! I love reading your Blog! Love, Gloria (now in Nevada, TX)
Susan, you have been a favorite artist and cookbook author of mine for too many years to count. My Dad (who passed away in 2004) was an avid fan too as well as a gourmet chef (I come from a long line of French chefs). So I now have two of each of your books – which works out perfectly since I am a most fortunate lady to be able to live in CT in the summer and on a little island off the FL coast in winter. Autumn has always been my favorite season – my birthday season!!! I have to say now that I leave the North on November 1, I have to savour the fall in a very short time. I try to pack in as much baking, cozying up by the fire, apple picking and hot cider drinking as I can. Each year I want to stay a little longer since my heart is firmly planted in New England. But now that I have found your blog I can just pretend I’m there right from my computer. Thank you for the joy you have given my family over the years through your books, recipes and art.
Thank you Denise for saying that, I’m touched and honored!
I love the smell of the crisp morning air when I get up and open the back to let it all in.
oO0oo0OO0o0Oooo! ALL of the above! The colors, the aromas, the breezes, the sky, the light, the cookies and cakes baking in the oven, the crunch of dried leaves, candles on the mantle, the crickets at night, the wood smoke at daybreak, the first fire in the fireplace…all these weave a magical web that embraces my soul….I live for Autumn! ♥
Fall……falling into the sights, sounds and smells of a very special time of year…A homecoming when family and friends gather around each other and celebrate a change of season……To sit in the evening in the yard…..the Scottish call it the gloaming…..a magical time of day…….a time to reflect and enjoy being in the moment ……
Cooler weather. Bright blue skies. Crisp fresh air. Decorating my front porch for Halloween. Pumpkins. Mums. Pansies. Potato Soup…a never ending list!
Fall is by far my favorite season, and the changing colors in Michigan on a crisp, sunny autumn day are so beautiful. Add to that a fresh homemade apple pie and what more could one want. Thank you so much for your generous quilt give-a-way!
Fall is such a pleasant season. After the end of summer, it is a whole new beginning of longer days, different smells, anticipating holidays, and sweat pants ! Yeah ! Earth tones are predominant and the smells of the holiday seasons approach. Shadows are long – and my crafting changes. I love all seasons….especially Fall. The table is arranged with interesting choices -some directly from outdoors. Fall may be my favorite season of all.
I am from the beautiful island of Guam, USA – but now living in Potomac Falls, VA! There is so much to love about Fall, but if I had to pick out my favorite thing – it would have to be a tie between all the different smells and the colors . From the aroma of spices and fruits and veggies that freshly baked goodies, soups, and stews lingers through the house (like a yankee candle burning), plus the smell of a nice wood burning fireplace…awesome; to all the beautiful brillant colors from the changing leaves on plants and trees, that brighten the outdoors – as well as colors of the decor: pumpkins, wreaths, straw, scarecrows, corn and squash and bales of hay! I only saw it in pictures when I lived on Guam…now, it’s a whole new world of happiness…To me Fall is the sign that the holiday’s are on it’s way and time for me to check out Susan Branch’s online store to order my holiday mailing labels! 🙂
My most favorite thing about the Fall is that it means HALLOWEEN! I start preparing the yard with colorful mums in shades of burgundy and autumn orange, pumpkins and gourds of many varieties, bails of hay, my big witch silhouette with cats and a big cauldron! I sit outside on my porch every night, with my afghan that my Aunt Betty made me when I was 13, a hot cup of tea, and a plate of pumpkin creamcheese swirl bread, taking in the Fall display on cool, autumn evenings, when the wind whips up and bronzey-burgundy-gold leaves bustle up into the air, swirling around. My “smell-morie” is one that can’t be duplicated in any candle or home-spray…cool autumn air mixed with burning fall leaves!
Fall is my absolute favorite season. 1) Love being able to put a fresh down comforter on the bed, leave the windows open at tad at night to sleep with cool air, but all snuggly under the soft covers 2) love it sooo much that we got married in the fall….this October we will celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary 🙂 3) Love to pick apples and make wonderful things with them: pie, applesauce, apple crisp, apple cake, baked apples – YUM! 4) but the BEST part about fall is FOOTBALL season! Love to watch football 🙂
Dear Susan………I love how you love Fall, too!!!!!! The smells of Autumn are marvelous. I love the seasonal foods, and the fun things there are to do with the kiddos. Due to a job layoff, this is my first Autumn to be ‘home’, and I am LOVING IT!! I love the first day you get to light the fireplace, and waiting to see if this is the last time the lawn needs to be mowed!! So much to love about my favorite season of the year!!! Thanks for this giveaway — how generous of you, as always.
What a great quilt to curl up with on a beautiful fall day! I love the colors of fall and the clean crisp smell of the air!
I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and the thing that I and most of my fellow Phoenicians love about fall is the end of summer! We look on summer much the way others look at the winter – time to stay in, survive the weather (117 degrees is *not nice!*), run up great electric bills, eat and grow fat because exercise is not possible. Hooray for Fall! Bicycling, hiking, suntanning Fall!
FALL – that most favorite time of the year for me. What’s not to like?
Favorite: The change in the air…it feels different on my skin even as it fills my lungs. Is it the change of the smells that inhabit it? Do the smells from up north change and make the difference? Whatever it is, I LOVE the air of autumn.
I love the smell of a wood burning fire…it’s the best smell. I can’t believe someone hasn’t made a candle that smells like burning firewood.
I love opening the door in the early morning and feeling that cold crisp air. It feels so refreshing after the long Hot summer we just had. Looking forward to the beautiful changes in the leaves too.
When I think of fall, I always remember walking to my Brownie meetings after school. I lived in Holliston, MA and Lawrence, MA when I belonged to the Brownies. At BOTH places I would walk among the fall leaves and I loved the smell. Now every time I get that first whiff of fall leaves, I am a little girl again going to Brownies to do crafts and have great snacks.
Maple syrup! I live in warm Southern California so during the hot summer months, we eat fresh fruit, cold cereal, cold smoothies–all good stuff. But I do miss my pancakes with lots of melted butter and delicious maple syrup. When it starts to cool down, I grab my bottle of Vermont maple syrup (only real maple syrup, please) and start pouring! Yummers!
This particular fall is even more special, after living in the Dallas area for almost eight years, I am back in my beloved Smoky Mountains area. One of my most favorite things about fall is seeing the harvest moon. It is special to me as I reflect on the harvesting of the crops “by the light of the silvery moon”.
My favourite thing about autumn has to be the colours of the leaves – especially when we have an October holiday in the US as we are planning this year.
I also love chasing leaves to catch them before they hit the ground. Many years ago I read a story by Enid Blyton in which someone with very little money gave a bag of 365 leaves (caught in this way) as a birthday present. Each leaf that is caught is supposed to represent one happy day, hence the present was a happy year. I still think it’s a lovely story.
i love the Autumn, have ever since i was a little kid, i was in the Fall…november. my favorite thing about, well there are so many, the crisp apples and the smell of apple crisps and apple pies in the oven, hot chocolate, the leaves changing colors, the scent of the wood stove smoke on the air, the crunch of the leaves when i walk through them, the scent of pumpkins and pumpkin pie in the oven, and of course pumpkins galore on the front porch. the call of the geese passing overhead on their way south. the soft, mellow sunlight of the shortening days, and the longer shadows in the late afternoons. the cups of hot tea on rainy fall afternoons, and the taste and smell of toast with cinnamon sugar on it. the smell of a turkey slowly roasting in the oven and the strong scent of sage used to season the bird and stuffing, the feeling of closeness and family during the season, and the warmth of coming home to a nice warm fire and someone to enjoy that fire with. the scent of maple syrup on pancakes and the taste of maple sugar candy, and the taste of caramels. the cute trick or treaters and the fun of setting up a haunted house or graveyard to scare the kiddies with. the smell of soup or stew simmering on the stove and the scent of fresh baked bread. but most of i love the Autumn as the most beautiful season of the year.
oops forgot cups of hot apple cider on crisp cool fall days, and going to the local high school football games. hayrides and apple picking and searching for that perfect pumpkin to carve for Halloween. and just baked pumpkin bread out of the oven. i love the Fall, and i love everything about it. i love your idea of hanging leaves in the window with little clothespins but my problem which beautiful leaves do i chooose…LOL!!! 🙂
I can’t pick one thing I love about Fall! I love everything! Since I do childcare in my home for a living, I think one of the very best things about Fall is watching the children squeal with excitement when we go for walks, gather leaves, feathers, acorns, who knows what! We bring it all in and they make Fall Collages to take home to show their parents all the treasures they’ve found. They also get super duper excited when they come in on a Monday and we’re all decorated for Fall outside. Scarecrows are up, leave garland is up, Susan Branch Fall flag is up!, Window boxes are planted with Mums and have mini scarecrows in them, arbor has orange twinkle lights on it. Yummy smells are happening inside with our Scentsy (love it!) burner burning Pumpkin Pie, or Sugar Cookie scents.
OK, I’ve cheated!! This is way more than one thing, but really the excitement of the kids and the changing season is what I love best about fall! Soon, they know they’ll be trick-or-treating, eating Thanksgiving dinner, playing in the snow and gearing up for Santa to visit!!
Fall means anticipation for the upcoming Winter where this house is filled with love and lots of hugs!!
Sweaters!! Wooly socks!! Wrist warmers!! and all things knitted. I love being out and about in the brisk air and being able to wear the nice wooly things I dream about (and sometimes do) knitting all year.
My birthday! And Halloween decorations, and just the way the sunlight looks different….
I love the vibrancy of the fall leaf colors… brillant orange.. firey red… majestic yellow and our lush brown tones of the leaves. I have a favorite young oak tree on a local state park trail that I bike too, just to see the changing of the leaves. In the Fall this young 15 foot tree is in its finest spendor and I love to be in its red shadow with the setting of the sun. I live for this lovely Fall moment.
I love EVERYTHING about fall… the colors, the scents, the sounds, the tastes, the feel of bundling up – EVERYthing is cozier! It’s always been my favorite season, but now my very, VERY favorite thing about fall is that is includes my wedding anniversary with my true love – celebrating the 6 happiest years of my life on Saturday October 1st! 🙂
I love driving the ‘fruit loop’ out by the Columbia River with my husband and our three girls. The loop consists of miles and miles of fruit trees and their farm stores filled with fall bounties of pears, apples and squashes. Each store also has its own little niche like Tillamook ice cream cones or handmade quilts or jams and honey or lavender lotions and extracts or freshly squeezed apple juice. Yay, Fall!
My favorite thing about Fall has to be the colors and the scents.The best is when my son and I take our dogs and go for walks in the woods after the rain. The woods smell soooo good, with the wet leaves and ground, and the trees slowly drying in the sun. The air is slightly cool, slightly warm and just faintly smells of woodsmoke. There are drops of water shimmering on the plants, and quite often we catch a glimpse of deer leaping across a clearing. Perfect. Afterwards we come home and have pumpkin bread and tea and just relax, warm and dry. It is the best time and the best memory ever.
What is NOT to love about fall. The way the leaves turn on the tree in my front yard… My roasted butternut squash soup and simmering cinnamon apples in dutch oven on my stove. Thank you for you fun blog….love reading it. The quilt is soooo homey and comfy looking.
Now I’m wishing I had about 300 quilts laying around, all boxed up and ready to go!!!
I love the colors of fall…the leaves of the trees, the yellows, oranges, reds and browns, and then we bring that color into our house with our fall decorating….pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn, fabrics and dishes and knickknacks. What a beautiful season: harvest and celebration.
I love the colors of Fall! There are so many things I like about it- wearing sweaters, baking pumpkin cookies and pie, burning my Fall scented candles, and taking a trip to the apple orchard for apples, cider, doughnuts, and picking out a pumpkin. Oh- and then there’s the beautiful fall mums . Oh- and fires in the fireplace. And looking forward to Thanksgiving – planning that great meal and having all the family together! Fall- what a blessed time!
Hi Susan! So much to love about fall! One of my most percious fall moments comes right after the daily zaniness of getting the kids off to school and the husband off to work. Then I curl up in the chair by the window with a cup of coffee and gaze at God’s beautiful fall colors…especially delightful on a rainy day.
I love warm sweaters for cool crisp walks followed by a hot cup of autumn tea with a good book.
I love the “feeling” of fall…the oranges and browns of the leaves and bountiful produce, but most of all I love the fact that everything in the fall points to Thanksgiving…the holiday we take time to “feel” thankful…
especially be thankful for all we have and have been given…especially family and good health…