I cannot be more excited about the fall season! I know I am a little early, but I am all ready to start implementing my favorite fall time activities. Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I love how the weather and the air changes to be more cool and crispy in the mornings and the evenings. I love how the stars shift in the sky. And always, I love how the leaves change color all around us. I feel like it is more often that I take notice of my surroundings with so much change happening outside all around. Continue on if you would like to know some of my favorite things to do in the fall.
Hiking
The best thing about the mornings and evenings cooling down is that I get to enjoy the beautiful weather with a hike with my family, friends, and my dog. I really try to go all around Treasure Valley and around the snake river, and I am a huge fan of the Wilson Creek pathway located in Nampa. The pathway has great shade and goes along the Wilson Creek. My favorite area features so many animals - local goats grazing, lots of ducks loafing, and even fish can be seen swimming in the creek. Going past Wilson Creek park and up along towards the Wilson Springs Ponds, you can even catch some beavers trying to pretend like they aren't there. I like to keep most of my hikes simple and lightweight, so I only bring essentials with me like water and sunblock, but there are so many ways to get prepared for hiking or to add in more challenging areas to explore. For more information on hiking, check out some of our books we have in our LYNX collection.
Movies
Who doesn't love to curl up and relax with a good movie, especially when the evenings start to get chillier? I love fall themed movies and I have a few that I like to watch every year. One of my favorite movies is When Harry Met Sally. Usually after I watch that I need at least one more Meg Ryan classic and I'll watch Sleepless in Seattle. However, fall also means Halloween and spooky movies for me. I watch an array of classic and new spooky movies each year. Some are really good and creepy like The Conjuring Series and other times I just have to get back into Hocus Pocus or ET.
Tea time!
Something fun that I like to do during the hot summer months is to grow herbs. They grow so fast and strong with all the sunlight I get on my balcony. When the warm season begins to end, I transfer my plants indoors and they survive as long as I don't clip them too much. I sometimes think about getting a grow light...maybe this Christmas. I use my herbs for cooking, but the majority of them get dried and stored for fall and winter and I make tea with them or cook with them during the off season. Interested in learning more about growing herbs for tea? The Herbal Tea Garden by Marietta Marshall Marcin has some great information. Herbs and Spices: Self Sufficiency, by Linda Gray is a quick guide to growing all sorts of herbs and spices indoors and outdoors and the book has a user friendly design that includes cute illustrations and to the point factoids I really enjoyed.
Decorating
It is definitely time for me to get back into decorating my home with all my fall favorites. I usually prefer a simple fall theme such as: yellow and orange flowers, a few pumpkins, maybe a scarecrow, some fun orange lights, and some nice spicy candle wax or cinnamon sticks. But once Halloween comes around I try to add in some new fun little spooky touches like ghosts, giant spiders, or skeletons. There are so many decorations that you can create on your own. Check out our catalog for some books that feature DIY decorations!
Stargazing
Lastly, I love how the stars change in the fall. Even though it is pretty cold at night, it is still so great to see so many constellations, nebula, planets, and even a galaxy. I have my own small telescope that I like to pull out and explore with, but stargazing is always way more fun in a group and can be done locally with the help of your local astronomy club. Safely explore the night sky with local enthusiasts and look through their often expensive and interesting telescopes. Saturn should be visible in the evenings and is so fun to see with a more professional telescope but is still a treat with a smaller telescope. Half the fun is tracking the way the stars and planets change over the duration of the season and some of us gazers even keep a star log. For more information on stargazing and astronomy, check out Astronomy - A Self Teaching Guide, by Dinah L. Moche, or look up more stargazing books from our catalog!
I hope you are ready to enjoy your favorite fall time activities, whatever those look like to you! If you have some you would like to share, let me know in the comments section, I am always looking for more fun things to do each season!