Friends, fall is here!! Isn’t it wonderful? Fall is the most beautiful season of all. I love Fall. It smells good, looks good, is neither too hot or too cold, you don’t get eaten by wild mosquitoes nor by crazy famished squirrels. Some of you may feel somewhat depressed because fall is the beginning of the end of the beginning of the winter. And some of you, especially in Montreal, for reasons I don’t personally understand yet fully respect, don’t like winter that much, and miss summer even before it’s over. Which means, you don’t like Fall. You look at it like an enemy, bringer of bad omens.
Poor fall never deserved such a treatment!! That’s why I decided to write a list of the 5 things to do in the Fall, that will make you adore it!
1-Hike in the forest with beautiful colors
Look at this colors!! Look at them! It’s beautiful, it’s peaceful, the temperature is just perfect. You can roll around in the golden fallen leaves (though my advice is to do that only in a dog-free area, like a national park, or to thoroughly check your leaf heap before rolling in it)
You can look on the ground and search for the perfect leaf to bring home, the one that’s the perfect shape and the right color – you know the one, you can see it in your mind – but beware, it can take hours if you’re of a perfectionist nature.
The path is soft under your feet, the smell of the ground, the mushrooms and the crushed leaves fills your delighted nose, and if you can hear it, a cello is playing a soft melody close by… Wait, this one may be only in my head…
Is the sky blue? Great! Look at its glory and perfection!
Is the sky gray? Amazing! The colors will look even more dazzling under a heavy sky.
2-Apple-picking
Last week, you rolled around in the leaves too much, and your friends strictly refuse to go with you in a forest anymore. No problem, go apple-picking instead!
Apple-picking is a fun activity for the whole family! Basically (for those which are not familiar with it), apple picking consists in going to an orchard, paying for a bag, and filling your bag with apples. Often, the orchard is in a farm, which comes with many attractions, but more on that later. Let’s concentrate right now on the apple-picking.
Easy, but still, easier for some than others….
So, the principle is simple: you pick an apple, put it in your bag, then pick another, put it in your bag, until your bag is full of apples. Still, something really weird happens to my friends and I everytime we go there… At the third or fourth apple, suddenly, an idea comes into your head “What if I threw this apple?”. You valiantly thwart the thought, and pick another one. The idea grows stronger. “What if I threw this one?”. With each apple, the idea becomes stronger and stronger, and soon, you cannot resist anymore… Besides, you realize that the same idea has grown into the Tyrex mind, just as an apple zoom right by you. Soon, you pick apples and throw them to each other. You climb onto ladders, look for the best ones, pick them at the peril of your life and destroy them by throwing them to a friend on the ground. You go deep into trees looking for those that look ripe and perfectly round, then juggle with them until they are apple puree.
And when your bag is filled with bruised, beaten fruit, another idea (or the same, but even stronger) comes into your head:
“Let’s see who can throw an apple the farthest!
-But where?
-In this corn field!
-Good idea!“
Not everybody is gifted with the ability to throw things…
3-The Corn-field maze
After some time spent happily throwing apples in the corn field (or in my case, trying to send apples in any direction at all), one of you will start asking questions about the shouts and exclamations of pain that come from it. As you approach it, you realize that it was not a regular corn field, but the one that is used as a maze! Now, in my case, it doesn’t matter much, because none of the apples I threw came even close to it, but the Tyrex, by this point, is feeling pretty embarrassed, therefore he accepts to go into the maze without demuring.
Corn Mazes are another simple yet funny thing to do! You enter at one end, and try to find a way out of the field, while people throw apples at you. It is not very interesting for the Tyrex though, because you see, he is taller than the corn, so he always sees the exit. Basically, he just follows me while I run around screaming, until I’m tired. Then he takes me out and we go eat something.
Hoot hoot indeed!!
4-Eating apple-related food and other
In those farms, you have many delicious apple-related items to buy and to eat. Apple juice in apple-shaped bottles for kids (or Owls). Apple pies, apple cider, apple donut, you name it.
You also have other fall-specific produce, like pumpkin and squash, and all their derivatives.
Or corn on the cob, which is cheap, but not easy to eat in a dainty way, and has a tendency to get in your teeth, if you know what I mean.
No Tyrex, that was NOT what I meant….
Once you are full of squash, apple, corn and sugar, it’s time to take a final stroll in the farm to digest a part of it before going.
5-Looking at goats
That’s usually when you find the petting zoo.
O what delights! What wonders! Look at this goat!! No seriously, look at this goat. Like, a very long time, in its eyes, while she munches on your scarf.
Or, in the Tyrex case…
…while you munch on a goat…
Or look at this ridiculous hen! A punk hen! Honestly, a real punk, anarchist hen! She’s headbanging even when she pecks! Maybe she’s looking at you too, but you don’t see her eyes anyway!
Or his eyes? Mother Nature, I mean to say… thank you, and also, why?
Maybe you can exchange languid looks with an alpaca (yes, he is definitely winking at you), or admire the donkey’s ears! (they are so big and so soft!!)
Anyway, hours of delight, I’m telling you. They’ll have to drag you home. Fall is awesome!!