Nature's Creature

It starts in late July. The sun shines through the trees a certain way or the breeze picks up and I have a "Fall Moment."
I don't know what it is about the passing seasons, especially fall, but I am really sensitive to the changes as the new season approaches.
In fall, it starts getting cold at night and the moon hangs low and big in the sky. The air gets drier and the leaves rustle in the wind. I still purposely walk through the piles on the ground, enjoying the crunching sound, same as I did when I was a child. I love the smell of burning leaves.
Sometimes the wind really picks up and howls and I feel like howling with it. The night skies are bright, I can see the stars sharp and crystal clear.
Halloween is coming and the pagan side of me looks forward to it, to the creepiness and the early darkness. I give out pixie stix. I'd rather die than give out anything even remotely healthy. Halloween is the night to overindulge, refuse to share and make yourself sick with sugar.
As the days cool off, I start digging out my sweaters and wearing them. I love the familiar softness of my old sweaters. I like to be outside in my warm sweater. Sometimes I go out in a t-shirt because I like the cold air on my skin too.
Fall usually gets me in the mood to turn on the oven and bake or I simmer pot roasts and stews on the stovetop. Summer vegetables are crisp and fresh, fall and winter vegetables seem to come more from the earth with the cool smell of dirt and loam. I build upon that earthiness with dried mushrooms and sage.
I have a primitive love for the changing of the seasons, I can feel it in my bones.