Welcome to the Fall 2021 Experience

 Happy Fall 2021!

To start off your Fall 2021 experience you should start with a quick fall cleaning. Remove dust and clutter, put away summer decorations, and reorganize your kitchen. Trust me, you’ll be spending a lot of time there for your Fall 2021 experience.

Once your living space is clean (or cleaner - I’m not going to judge you), it’s time to put up the Halloween fall decorations. If you’re anything like me, the fall decorations are mixed in with your regular decorations. Now you’ll want to bring them to the forefront - maybe put them on a pedestal - and set candles everywhere. You can’t have enough candles in fall.

Speaking of decor, you’re color palette for the Fall 2021 experience is deep reds, golden wheat yellows, warm oranges, nutty browns, and (of course) black. Some purple accents are acceptable and a dash of neon green is okay the closer you get to Halloween.

Fall 2021is dedicated to peace, transition, and going to farms.

Don’t forget your Covid vaccine and Flu shot.

Visiting farms is a tried and true pastime in American culture. Fall is usually the best time to go as it is the harvest season - when the best fruits and veggies are ready to eat. I recommend looking for farms that feature apple picking, pumpkin patches, and corn mazes.

I’m fairly certain that corn mazes are a uniquely American (northern continental) phenomenon. They can vary in size and might require participants to carry a flag in case they get lost and need help (cell phone service is typically spotty). You shouldn’t fear entering a corn maze. The worst that can happen is you get lost for a few hours. There is nothing stalking the rows of corn…unless the farm and town are run by children and have scarecrows that look suspiciously like corpses.

Many farms will have some late night haunted attractions. These have become a staple all around the United States and may have an over arcing theme. If you don’t like loud noises, strobe lights, fog machines, or being scared in general - then these events are not for you. Don’t worry, the actors aren’t supposed to touch you. If they do, they aren’t actors. You might have stumbled upon something dangerous and that goes against our Fall 2021 experience guidelines - please run away.

Now that you’ve had your farm experience, it’s time to get to work in the kitchen. The Fall 2021 experience naturally includes a lot of baking, roasting, and cooking. Some of the best recipes are made with fall flavors. These flavors include cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, and anything else associated with pumpkin spice non-sense. Don’t feel basic if you want to try all the pumpkin spiced flavored things - this is normal. And noticed, it’s pumpkin spice flavored - pumpkins aren’t required, though greatly encouraged. They are a very healthy food.

I recommend trying apple or pumpkin scores recipes, baking bread, and a hearty meat strew. I’m looking forward to trying my hand at making a creamy mushroom soup this year. You of course can find ideas on the Internet, but for your Fall 2021 experience I recommend trying to find a local farmers market as they tend to have recipe recommendations with local produce.

Now that you’ve fully emerged yourself in the Fall 2021 experience, you can now start looking at what you can add on to bring this fall up from typical, to extraordinary.

First your movie list.

Horror movies are a staple for this time of year. There are some that just drip the fall aesthetic. I’m fond of House of Wax with Vincent Price, Halloween the original first three, and Sleepy Hollow the Disney animated version and the Tim Burton one (which is about as authentically American as cricket). 

If you aren’t into horror movies, there are plenty of spooky Halloween movies to chose from. I personally recommend Coraline, Halloweentown, Hocus Pocus, Paranorman (I always cry), The Addams Family, and Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost. If you’re wondering why Nightmare Before Christmas isn’t included, that’s because it’s a November movie.

But if Halloween isn’t your thing, there are still plenty of media for you to enjoy. The best being Over the Garden Wall. It’s a series that just drips everything fall.

Finally, you might be interested in adding one final detail to your Fall 2021 experience.

Witchcraft!

Many a young witch (male, female, and non-binary people may all use the term) find their calling during the fall season. It’s a perfect time to learn and experiment. Most of your first spells will probably  to go well at all. I recommend starting small. Learn to combine runes to creat charms, put together sweet dream sleep satchels, or reading tarot. Leave summoning eldritch creatures for when you’ve been practicing for a while - they’ll be less likely to eat you when called.

I hope you enjoy your Fall 2021 experience. May it bring you peace, tranquility, and a brief encounter with the darker things in life (in a safe, controlled setting - naturally). Set up a bond fire, invite nine of your closest friends, and dance naked under the crisp fall moon as leaves fall around you. You might even find yourself flying amongst the stars.

It’s the perfect time for fun.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Welcome to Fall 2021

The weather might not agree, but fall is right around the corner y’all. The fall equinox is Wednesday. I’ve already started planning for my fall celebrations and am chomping at the bit to put up all my Halloween decorations.

One of my favorite things to do in fall is to go to fall festivals.

Usually they have some type of corn maze, a hay ride, and a pumpkin patch. Other farms have animals around with educational facts, apple picking, some type of play ground, and/or games (like an apple or pumpkin slingshot and corn hole).

Oh no! A fork in the corn maze!

Last year, very few places were open and I skipped out on my annual fall fun.

This year it feels like a lot of places are making their fall festivals bigger than ever. 

Yesterday, I went with a group to Cox Farm in norther Virginia (yep we still have a couple farms up here). It was massive and fantastic. The hay ride alone was worth the price of admission. They had lots of great themed areas, farm animals (along with a goat petting zoo), tons of slides, a tracker museum, a corn “maze” (it was more of a walk through with themed areas), an enchanted forest (with fun facts about local plants and animals), and foam-henge which is a “to-scale” replica of stone henge in England. There was a ton of food, live music, a farm store, and tons of places for kids to play. We even got to sample free apple cider.

Mama with her piglets

They even have haunted attractions for late at night (we did not do those).

I would have loved this place as a kid. Heck, I loved it as an adult. The themed areas were a lot of fun and clearly well taken care of. One of my friends is an artist and was thrilled that the farm had commissioned so much art work. I had fun finding all the little details hidden in the scenes.

I don’t know why this exists, but I’m impressed it does.

Now, I don’t want this blog post to sound like an ad for Cox Farms. It was awesome and what I needed to kick off the fall season, which is why I’m gushing so much about it.

Finding local farms that have fall festivals is a wonderful thing to do. I may try to go to another one before the season ends. But we still need to be careful.

All over the grounds of Cox Farms were signs reminding people that COVID-19 was still a threat. They’d let people know when it was required or strongly suggested to wear a mask. There were warnings before we entered the corn maze and got on the hay ride. Most people were good about wearing a mask. There were also lots of places to get hand sanitizer or wash up. People were happy and relaxed, while also being cautious.

It was a rare feeling of normalcy after a year and a half of stress and fear.

I will go ahead and recommend you guys find local farms hosting fall festivals. They’re a great way to get into the seasonal spirit and allow for people to pick up local produce. Some are bigger than others. Some have late night haunted attractions, while others will allow you to walk the corn maze at night with nothing but a flag and flash light (the flag is for if you get lost and can’t find your way out). I’ve been to places in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey and can give recommendations.

I hope all of you have a great start to the fall season. Stay safe, get vaccinated, and wear a mask.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my reads and I hope y’all like hearing from me,

Welcome to Climbing Mountains

Twenty years ago, one of the biggest traumatic events in the world happened. It triggered a series of further traumatic events that have rippled to affect things through the 2000s, 2010s, and today. There are adults who don’t remember a time when the US wasn’t at war.

But I don’t want to discuss that today. I’ve already written plenty of blog posts about it. 

This week has been stressful. My cat has been sick and I’m hoping she’s okay. One two hour trip to the vet left us with more questions than answers. I think she’s getting better, but it was a tough couple of days.

So much of the past few years have felt like never ending challenges - like trying to climb a mountain and finding more of that mountain to climb. I’ll think I’ll get to the top of my mountain, congratulate myself, turn around, and shout “you’ve got to be kidding me” as I see more mountain.

 However, I keep climbing that mountain because I know at some point I will reach the top and I’ll feel fantastic once I get there.

Just so long as this doesn’t turn into the story of Sisyphus.

If you’re not familiar with the Greek myth, it’s about a guy named Sisyphus who kidnapped the god of death, Thanatos, tricked Persephone, and royally pissed off Hades. He was punished by the gods to roll a giant rock up a mountain only to have the giant rock roll back down the mountain over and over again once he reached the top. Overly Sarcastic Productions has a great synopsis of the myth (click here). 

Personally, I always picture Sisyphus getting squashed into a pancake like a Loony Toon when the rock rolls back down.

Right now, I feel like the mountain of problems and stress I’m climbing is never ending. Some days, I feel like I’m Sisyphus about to be flattened by everything I’m doing - though I’m not sure which god I annoyed/tricked/kidnapped to cause that.

But unlike Sisyphus, I plan on getting to the top of my mountain. Sisyphus is on the mountain all by himself. I know I have help. It’s safer to climb (and hike) with a buddy or a group. They’ll catch you if you trip, hold the back of your shirt so you don’t fall off a ledge, and cheer you on when all you want to do is quit. We’ll get to the peak of the mountain together. 

By the way that squirrel was pooping . What a great view for that.

Once there, I’ll relax a bit and then find a new mountain to climb. Because even though mountain climbing might be tough, it feels great to get to the top. Plus there’s usually a spectacular view - especially when you can share it with those you climbed the mountain with.

How do I know this?

I climbed a mountain last week.

It wasn’t a big mountain, but it was a lot more precarious than my usual hikes to a spectacular peak. I went and visited my cousins who live near Acadia National Park in Maine. We had to get up at 5:45 to start climbing before everyone else got there. By the time we’d hiked the whole loop and got back to the ground, there was a line of people snaking their way up the rock’s face.

We’re all going to climb mountains. Some will be small and steep, others tall with gradual winding paths to the summit. Not one of us will have the same experience making our climbs. It’s not a contest or a race. Like any good story it’s a journey.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.