Friday Five: Fall Transformations

Mary Beth, down in Texas, writes:

Here in my neck of the woods, rain is falling...a little uncharacteristic for August, but most welcome! It'll be hot and humid later, but a break in the heat is most welcome.

Also falling (especially into my driveway) are the fruits of the bois d'arc tree (also known as the Osage Orange). We call them "bowdarks" and enjoy bowling them down the driveway to the empty lot across the street. (Yes, I may be a redneck...)

Bois d'arc fruits are used only for: 1) making more trees and 2) eating by squirrels (if you have another use, please let me know!)

The wood of the bois d'arc tree, however, is very hard and very beautiful, and makes gorgeous items like the vase above. Such a lovely thing, from such an odd-looking source!

For this Friday's Five, share with us five transformations that the coming fall will bring your way.

I'm not expecting any personal transformations this fall, although anything can happen and usually does. So I'm just going to talk about weather and so forth.

1. Of course, here in New England, fall foliage is one of the most visible transformations. Our lot has oak and maple trees, and there are mountain ash, birch and doubtless others I don't know the names of in the neighborhood. A couple of stressed trees have dropped the odd red or yellow leaf already, but it will be a while yet before we can really call it "leaf-peeper season."

2. Apples! Apples at the farmer's market, and fresh cider too. Of course apples from New Zealand and so on are available year round, but there's nothing like the home-grown. (Oddly enough, Blogger seems to think I have spelled "Zealand" wrong. I don't think so.)

3. College students will be coming back to town, and free lectures, exhibits and performances will resume in abundance. There's a lot to do here in summer too, but one of the reasons we chose Brunswick is that one doesn't need to hibernate in winter.

4. There's a big transformation in the lives of SonShineIn, The Collector, and Sisterfilms starting today. SSI and TC are buying their first house, and SF will live there with them. There is a lot of work for them to do to make it truly habitable, and they are full of plans for a garden, basement exercise room, etc. I wonder if this will mean Sisterfilms will call me more often, or less often?

5. Heating season is coming up. Until we figure out an affordable way to transition to heating with something besides oil, we're going to need to get used to a cooler house, and also do some work to make the house more energy-efficient. One idea is to use our sunroom more, not just as a dining room but have a reading nook there. It gets lots of sun in winter which makes it nice and warm (on sunny days, which are frequent).

Bonus: Give us your favorite activity that is made possible by the arrival of fall.

I can't think of anything that I couldn't reasonably do at other times of year, but fall is when I start really preparing for the Advent and Christmas season. I'm beginning already to look for read-aloud stories to put on CD for a certain young person.