<p>Some sing the joys of crisp temps and fresh breezes. Others, of the brilliant fall foliage. Some see autumn as the harbinger of winter snow sports.</p>
<p>For me, I know it’s really and truly Fall when Theno’s Dairy has pumpkin ice cream – only available between October 1 and New Year’s. Theno’s actually opens from midnight to 2 am on October 1 for us gotta-have-it pumpkinheads.</p>
<p>O bliss!</p>
<p>O joy!</p>
<p>Ice cream from rotund squash!</p>
<p>Hi WashDad! I live not too far from Theno’s Dairy. (But I am not much of an ice cream person.)</p>
<p>I prefer the pumpkin bagels at Bigfoot Bagel.</p>
<p>For those of us in the hot and humid south, fall is finally being able to buy Mallowmars in the grocery store (oh, I miss Gilmore Girls!).</p>
<p>I’ll let you know what fall feels like when it stops being summer in NJ. I was swimming in the ocean on Saturday–nice, but…weird.</p>
<p>Another NJian here. I just realized how much I enjoy (and am missing) having crisp weather when trampling through heaps of leaves picking juicy, crisp apples in Saddle River Farm.</p>
<p>It’s not yet cold here… Temps are supposed to begin dipping next weekend. I can’t wait for the leaves to get brilliant.</p>
<p>WashDad and Bookiemom, Pumpkin icecream and bagels sound absolutely yummy. Gotta try to make a trip down to WA to try those someday.</p>
<p>garland, It has been great hasn’t it! I know the extra month of summer is over though. Oh, well. I enjoyed every minute of it.</p>
<p>Well, its still hot and humid here. And the pumpkin lattes at Starbucks give me hot flashes in this weather. But at least I know its fall somewhere… I could go for some of that pumpkin ice cream. I know I know, you can ask for a pumpkin frappachino. But its just not the same. </p>
<p>I get into fall when the local church has their pumpkins for sale. They have a huge pumpkin “patch” for much of October. </p>
<p>For a funny fall story: My sister was an adult, visiting CT with me for the first time in October several years ago. (We grew up in Florida.) We went picking apples, and picking pumpkins. She saw the pumpkin patch along side of a hill and exclaimed “Look, they rolled those pumpkins all out nicely for everyone to see. You sure can check them out easier this way.” I told her to walk over and take a closer look. Still, she didn’t see. Finally, I reminded her that some still appeared attached. She had no idea how pumpkins grew! You see, in Florida they are trucked in and often left in rather large “piles” to sort through.</p>
<p>As much as the warm weather has been fun, I do look forward to fall. I love fall light, that golden shine through the fall-colors of the leaves. I like all the stereotypical fall things–cider, apple picking, pumpking farms, hayrides-- even though we don’t do those things as often as the kids are grown (D always does at least one haunted hayride, though–she is a Halloween fanatic.)</p>
<p>I love the crisp chill after a warm enough to still be out in shirt-sleeves afternoon. I love seeing the stars --they’re so much clearer in fall and winter skies.</p>
<p>I really hope that this lingering summer doesn’t mean we skip right to winter–now, that would be depressing!</p>
<p>Pumpkin pancakes!!!</p>
<p>You hot weather people could have chilled pumpkin cheesecake.</p>
<p>H & S went biking & swimming at Sandy Hook this weekend. I’m having great luck dethatching & reseeding sections of the lawn. Mums I transplanted & cut back for the winter are going through a second round of blooming. Had the AC on last night for sleeping. It’s just weird. I can’t go pumpkin picking wearing shorts, and not because of my varicose veins. It’s just WRONG!</p>
<p>SS, LOL! May I ask about mums, what are you supposed to do for winter, cut the whole plant down to an inch above the ground? When do you cut them?</p>
<p>Northeast, most of my gardening success is purely accidental. With mums, I cut them down for the winter about an inch above the ground. I also cut off a few inches in the spring before the buds are set. This makes them grow bushier, rather than tall. I prefer that look. Any real gardeners out there to give more accurate advice?</p>
<p>Thanks, I did not know this. Last year was the first time that we planted a few mums. I just had dead looking plants after the first couple of frosts. I found that some did not even start growing back (only a few did) until late summer. I thought a few were weeds when they first started to grow, but I wasn’t sure, so fortunately I did not pull them out, LOL! I did cut down my ornamental grasses about 4- 6 inches from the ground, and they all came back beautifully. I need to prune those periodically, because some blades tend to bend into the sidewalk, or onto another plant.</p>
<p>garland, I have the same worry as you that we’ll go straight to winter weather. I hope that doesn’t happen! This weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving and amazingly enough, our pool is still open and many family members were swimming before sitting down to our turkey dinner. The temps on the weekend were in the high 80’s in Toronto and very humid so it felt like July, not October.</p>
<p>:( stop talking about your Indian summer, I am bundled up sweeping all the big yellow leaves from the front courtyard and cutting back all the plants for winter, it was a sweltering 52 F yesterday!</p>
<p>I want to see some yellow leaves; of course my favorite are the red ones!</p>
<p>Sunday had a high of 90 over here, Monday about 88… I’m almost longing for fall now.</p>
<p>Simple seasonal sin? I thought you might be referring to candy corn!</p>
<p>Lots of red and yellow leaves in the PNW and even some already bare trees and vines, we are waay ahead of all ya’ll down south ;)</p>