First leaf of fall...

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house.
So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne



Found this lone leaf in the backyard yesterday, our first fallen leaf of the year. Today in the front was a veritable shower of gold...as leaves spill from the trees surrounding our property. A neighbor has started a fire in their firepit, and the backyard is cool, 60º and the breeze is bringing us whiffs of real firewood smoke. Yay! Because the weather is cooling, the children spend all day outside, jumping and climbing and digging and swinging on vines. Late into the evening, as we gather for dinner on the deck, we watch the stars come out, the full moon, and give thanks for the day we've had together.