Autumn in PA

It's hard to describe just how it is to be back in PA during the fall season after being gone for 14 years. We lived in a part of Montana with very few trees, so being back here and being able to experience the beauty of fall feels like such a gift. The subtle scent of the fallen leaves, the ripening cornfields, my kids playing in piles of leaves they've raked up. Crunchy leaves that have fallen and dried on the porch, beautiful colors right outside our school room window, the mountains all around us turning red, golden and orange. Memories of my childhood have flooded my mind these past few weeks, stirred by the loveliness of autumn that I've not experienced here for so long.... my dad picking corn with a single row cornpicker and my sibilings and I riding along in the gravity wagon, jumping into piles of raked up leaves, baking snickerdoodles with my mom. The smell of woodsmoke when my dad started up the furnace for the winter, going deer-spotting on chilly fall evenings. It's good to be home again.