Over the last few days we’ve had our first real taste of fall of the year. The cool weather that has moved into Wilson Holler has been deliciously airish.
Seems like I’m more anxious for fall of the year than I usually am.
Sunday after dinner we were all sitting on the back deck and I got down right chilled. The Deer Hunter laughed when I said I needed to go in for a coat.
I like to leave one of our bedroom windows cracked a few inches for fresh air but am forced to shut it in the summer months when the afternoon sun beats against that side of the house.
The cooler temps has allowed me to open the window again and I swear the fresh air makes me sleep even sounder than I usually do.
Today I used two of Appalachia’s fall bounty to make a cake: black walnuts and apples. Along with the desire to cook up some of our favorite autumn foods I’m also eagerly anticipating the first fire in the woodstove.
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There is nothing like leaving the windows open on an autumn night waking up chilled, but all warm and comfy in bed under the covers.
Love, love our fall weather here in the mountains of NC…….time for fall festivals, music and enjoying the bounties of summer gardens….I can’t wait to go over home and just sit on the porch there and enjoy hearing the creek and birds…….pick some tunes and remember all our loved ones gone on.
Autumn is my time of the year…Monday morning I was in the gorge at Beechertown doing some meditation before going on to Bryson City..what a lovely place for some serenity..
Fall is my favorite time of yr. Everything is so beautiful when the leaves change and become so vibrant. All the different colors of red , orange and yellow. My husband loves it because it almost deer season. He suppose to take my youngest grandson this yr. I’m hoping he can get enough for us to can and make deer jerky.
I love this time of year so much! Those first crisp clear days when you can really feel fall in the air are my favorite. Then looking forward to all the pretty colors as the leaves begin changing. Curling up with a soft fuzzy blanket, a good book and a hot drink…I can’t wait. Spring and fall are the best seasons in my opinion
I love your terming of it as delicious airish. The fall season is such a soft time of year. I love everything it about except for raking leaves. God Bless
It’s a beautiful chilly day in northern Michigan with fall colors everywhere, and everywhere you look, looks like it should be a painting. I love the fall. Somehow, it makes me feel younger.
I think the temperature around Greenville, SC this morning and the rest of the week is nighttime temps of the the mid 50’s and daytime temps of about 80 degrees. This talk of fall brings back memories of growing up in the late 50’s and 60’s. We would be getting ready to take our sweet potatoes up(500-750 plants), taking up several long rows of peanuts, feeding the hog nothing but corn (goal of at least 500lbs) and getting him ready to butcher, and mother, grandaddy and the other neighbors picking cotton by hand. I also remember the feeling of happiness you would have when looking at the food that had been either canned or froze during the summer and the other work that had been done in preparation for the winter. I hated picking the peanuts off the vine, but loved laying in the floor beside of daddy in front of the fireplace eating roasted peanuts on those long winter evenings. It also seemed like we ate turnip greens (sallet) and cornbread several nights a week. I also remember when about 5 years old and being with mother and grandaddy while picking cotton and mother making me a little sack and telling me to pick me some cotton and make me a penny or two. I thought I was being smart and put a rock in my sack and covered it up with cotton. At weigh up time my rock rolled out on the sheet, mother reached around, pulled up a dried up cotton stalk and wore out my butt. Truthfully it was more noise than pain but even today I don’t pass by that field without remembering and telling whoever might be in the car with me about that whupping. I also remember the fellowship with one another of all of the workers sitting in the shade under a big oak tree that is still standing while eating their dinner/lunch. The cotton field at that time belonged to my future wife’s granddaddy. How I long for those good times of the past.
Hello from NE Ga! It was 55 here yesterday morning morning which ultimately led to me making a double batch of soup made with ground deer meat from my well stocked freezer. Both my husband and son hunt so we are rarely in short supply of venison. I also made a pan of cornbread my trusty cast iron pan passed to me from my mom. We call it “the” cornbread pan lol. I had my daughter (who helps me here at the house on Monday and Tuesday ) over with my 3 granddaughters and she was excited to share in eating the soup. The men were also happy when they got home from work. Sending hugs and prayers to you all.
Sincerely,
Angel Gallman ( just a quiet follower and fellow Appalachian trying to come out of her shell 🙂
Angel-that sounds wonderful 🙂
Angel on Oct. 26 , if my wife had not passed away 2 1/2 years ago, we would have been married 49 years after going together -dating for over 2 years- we started while in high school. A neighbor and friend to both of us gave a cast iron frying pan to us at my wife’s wedding shower. She told my wife it could be used for cooking and making me (Randy) behave. I still use this pan and also call it the cornbread frying pan. I still have knots on my head, lucky the pan didn’t break! Good crusty cornbread must be cook in a cast iron frying pan,
Haha! I’m sorry about your wife. We have been married 34 years but my mom passed away 7 years ago. I went through her things and that cast iron pan (even though I had my own) was the most valuable thing to me. That pan had cooked cornbread at least 50 years if not more. My brother ask if he could borrow a cast iron pan and I said yes to one of mine but not THE cornbread pan lol. And a correction to my first comment is I live in NW Ga. Not sure what I was thinking earlier.
I put a whole chicken in the crockpot early this morning. I will be using the broth, plus some of the meat, to make homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner (supper) tonight, and will freeze the rest. My mind has been on my favorite season of the year for a month now, and I have begun cooking and baking like it is already here. I am happy when I notice any tiny sign that Fall is coming!! This morning when I went in the garage and felt the cooler air, I thought “yep! Fall is on the way!!”. There is nothing like crisp morning air in the Fall!
Donna. : )
It’s cooler in my area of NC too! Unfortunately, I’m allergic to Ragweed and it’s all around my house. When we had a cool spell at the end of August we opened the windows to get in some fresh air at night. I woke up the next morning coughing, sneezing and all stuffed up. I couldn’t figure out why until I saw Golden Rod in bloom which means Ragweed is all around too. So my windows had to be closed. It got hot again so I had to close them again anyway due to the jump back up to 90 degree weather. Sadly, the damage was done to my respiratory system by the Ragweed. After at least four weeks of coughing my head off and lots of allergy medicine, I am finally on the mend. As much as I would love to open my windows now that it’s cooled back down, the consequences of another round of allergies is just not worth it to me. I’m hoping once all the ragweeds have finished their pollination time or the first frost , I can then open my windows to enjoy the fall air.
Lately, the weather here on the Cumberland Plateau has been down right delightful. Just a light breeze with cool, crisp clean air is a welcome change from sweltering summertime heat. Like you, I sleep better with a window open at night.
Woke up to 50 degrees today in the capital city of NC. I love the fall season. Prayers for all. Take care and God bless ❣️
We woke up to 46 degrees this morning. The highest temperature we’re supposed to have over the next 15 days is 73. It’s getting airish in Idaho too.
Good morning everyone. Here in NE Arkansas, mornings have been in the 50’s. But it’s the lower humidity that’s wonderful. No air conditioning til evening so I can sleep. Yesterday was the best. About 10am I stood out front by my car, looking at all my beautiful trees, feeling the cooler air. Such a feeling came over me. I have only smelled such clean cool air at this time of year, surrounded by all this greenery in one other place. It was when I lived in the California mountains. 6200′ up. The air is so clean, everywhere is green, a hint of fall. Most people get happy when spring is coming. Me, it’s fall. Not hot, not cold, not too sunny, not too gloomy. Windows open if I want, bake something and not worry about a hot house. AHHHH. Hope you are all well. Anna from Arkansas.
Anna, my husband & I have lived in NE Arkansas all of our lives. Sending you a high 5! We are so excited that the weather has turned cooler! Makes my heart so happy! Now to decide whether to pick all of the green tomatoes! Lol I don’t think they will ripen unless I place them in paper bags and place them in a dark place to ripen.
Have a blessed day!
Hi Nannette, pretty name. I’ve been here 2 years last June. Retired here. I’m letting mine still stay on the vine, ’cause I don’t have room. We are in Gosnell. Nice to meet you.
I am enjoying the cool weather here in Richmond, Virginia. I love having the windows open and the breezes coming in.
My wife is busy getting a crock pot of chili going. She also said she was putting a blanket on the bed tonight. In Summer she sleeps under a flannel sheet and by this time next month she will want the electric blanket. I can’t turn the AC below 78 in the summer without getting her a sweater or a blanket.
I work in my shop at 50 and feel fine – she comes in and says she can’t understand why I’m not frozen.
My response to her is to pretend I’m wiping sweat from my forehead.
Nothing I love better than a long Sunday afternoon of reading by the woodstove!
It was a bit chilly out on the porch at school this morning here in Virginia as well. We’ve got trees that are already starting to show color as well.
Yesterday morning when as we were watching the weather forecast, I told my mom that Matt would be happy this week. She said, “that’s just what I was thinking”. It’s been a little cool here, but not quite as cool as your area. Makes me want to take a trip to Cades Cove.
I woke up to 47 yesterday and today here in North Cherokee Co, NC. I had not been aware of this and went to bed with windows open the first night and a paddle fan on. I had 3 cat night.
Yep, it has that fall feel; cooler, drier, clear air, leaves beginning to come down, all kinds of nuts (not people) showing up, yellow fall wildflowers, asters almost ready to show up.
It’s been in the lower 50’s and a few upper 40’s every morning for a week or so when I take my early morning walk. I have been wearing a jacket and I know it won’t be long until I will need to do my walking indoors at our church Family Life Center. Last Thursday I made my traditional first pot of chili of the season. Many are saying the persimmon seeds are showing a spoon and the wooly worms are black and we are in for a rough cold snowy winter here in Indiana. Our area is in a drought so we are due some heavy snows to balance out and Mother Nature rarely lets us down. Thoughts and prayers to Granny and Katie and the baby.
Where can you buy black walnuts? Other than the labor of cracking the difficult nuts?
Richard-Our local grocery store has them and walmart too. Sometimes you can find someone in the community here that cracks them to sell as well.
57 degrees here in NE Cherokee County GA and it feels about like freezing compared to what we have had. The main factor is the humidity is low and that helps so much.
Prayers for Granny
The cooler temperatures are also upon us here in Pennsylvania. I love the crisp air and I too have put on a sweater. The windows being opened a crack sure feels nice with all the fresh air. I made some ham, green bean, and potato soup yesterday and I’m thinking about taking the garden tomatoes and okra and making a soup out of them today. I’m surprised that they are still putting on, but I’ll take the bounty and be thankful! God bless you and sending love to Granny.
51 degrees in north Georgia, God bless you friends of Appalachia
Still pretty warm in central Florida this morning. I look forward to some cooler weather soon. Enjoy!!!
Fall is my favorite time of the year. The weather around here is starting to have that fall feeling to it. After the hot, dry days we had during the summer, I am ready for the cooler days of fall. I no longer crack the window, but some of the best sleep I ever had was when I was a teenager and would open or crack a window in my bedroom and sleep wrapped up in blankets during the winter months. My parents house only had a kerosene heater in the center of the house and a wood fireplace in the living/den room and I liked to close my bedroom door and make my bedroom cold.
Talk of the past, in the last years before my wife died, we would take a short 3 day, 2 night trip to the mountains of NC during October near the time of our anniversary. We loved looking at the trees and just being in the mountains after the leaves changed color. I would alway bring back some apples, enough mountain cabbage to give to family and neighbors and a quart jar of sourwood honey.
We have been having weather that feels like fall here in the mountains of WV also. Yesterday, my husband and I took a long walk out a dirt road that winds through the woods. The leaves are already turning and the temperature was in the 50”s. How refreshing the cool air felt—how beautiful the deep blue September sky! It’s so powerful how the change in the seasons makes me want to bake and make soup. The temperature is only 48 out this morning—time for a hot cup of coffee! Enjoy your day!
I woke up this morning to 61..yippppeee. I think one of the reasons I am so happy with the lower temps are the fact that August here in upstate Florida is the high 70’s at night and near 95 or so during the day. I know it is easy to say that this is one of the hottest years, but without looking back at the actual temps, it is hard to say. I opened my windows this morning as well and welcome the FRESH air. I know we will probably go back a little to the summer weather, but gosh it is nice right now. Have a Blessed day and please pass it on to Granny.