Fall Leaves

Welcome to the second day of the month long event that I like to call "YOU NEVER NOVEMBER WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET"!

You're probably expecting a blog entry about music being that today is Sunday, and it would normally be all about the Sunday Jukebox, right?

Well...not today.

Yes, you'll likely see a music post a little later this week, but in the meantime, I have decided to switch things up this month.  All month long (excluding Tuesdays), all the theme days are being switched and shuffled around.  And unlike previous times in which I have done this, I am not telling you what theme days you can expect.

A real expect the unexpected month, if you will.

For more information about this month long feature, please consult yesterday's entry for more information - or you can just click HERE if you like.

So, first question.  Have you turned back time yet?

(Note that although I have posted a video by Cher up above, this is not the subject of the blog.)

If you live in North America (excluding Arizona, of course), then you had better have turned back time.  Time shifted back one hour today at two o'clock this morning.  If you haven't done so already, do it now.  Oh, and now would be a great time to check your smoke detectors.  The batteries should be replaced every six months or so, and daylight savings time is a good time to do it.

I know some people absolutely hate daylight savings time, and I admit that it can be quite hard on a lot of people to get readjusted to the time change.  But it is one of the things that we have to deal with when it comes to the seasons of spring and fall.

But come on now, there are a lot of things that are awesome about fall.  In fact, I've decided to talk about one of these perks of fall right here in this very blog.

Yeah, this would be considered a throwback to those Saturday Smorgasbord entries that I did a few months ago where we talked about toys and games.  And in this blog, you can't find a toy that is more natural.  More biodegradable.  More fun!

I'm talking about LEAVES!  Those wonderful fall leaves that fall ever so delicately upon the earth, blowing down the street with a gentle breeze...

...or, if you happen to live in a place that has a lot of storms, leaves blowing violently off of trees and zooming past you with the force of a Boeing 747.

Either way, I am sure that all of you have some fond memories of playing with leaves - well before you grew up and realized that they were a pain to rake from your yard. 

I know I certainly have lots of fun memories of leaves.

I think it all started when I was a little kid.  I was a lot more outgoing as a small child than I was when I was a teenager, so I was always going to the park, or playing outside in my backyard.  And depending on the season, I would have good experiences and bad experiences.

For instance, while most people loved spring and summer, I could take it or leave it.  Spring had annoying allergies and summer was filled with hornets, wasps, and other creepy crawlies that stung.

Winter was okay, but I hated getting dressed up like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man to go outside.

No, fall was definitely my season.

And let's face it.  There is just something about a gigantic pile of leaves in glorious shades of red, gold, orange, and yellow that makes them absolutely impossible to resist diving right into it.

You can just hear it now...the soft crunching of the leaves as they crackle under your feet.  That was the sound of happiness during the month of November.  And hey, can you imagine a game of hide and go seek without having a pile of leaves to hide in?

And hey...this dog loves leaves too!  I mean, he REALLY loves leaves!

Of course, that wasn't all that we did with leaves.  Some of my favourite arts and crafts projects also involved using leaves as well.  I remember that we had to go into our schoolyard, find three different leaves that had fallen, and try to draw pictures using leaves as the bulk of the picture (like making oak leaf bugs, or drawing a Canadian flag with a real maple leaf).

Oh, and we also used to grab leaves from outside, and colour over them with a crayon to see all of the lines show up through the crayon.  That was also fun.

So, what sorts of things did you love about leaves?