Fall has arrived! Time to get pumpkins!

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Fall has finally arrived here in northern Indiana! Literally overnight the leaves on some of the trees went from green to punches of gorgeous red and yellow and the temperature has finally fallen below 70-for now...you never know here in the great state of Indiana. One night the low will be a frosty 35 degrees and the very next day will be sunny and 75. Seriously.

Autumn is my favorite season. At the first sight of it, I immediately want to put on an old school J. Crew rollneck sweater, throw a little John Mayer Continuum on the IPOD, and settle in to watch the original Halloween with a cup of hot spiced cider. Heaven.

I love it when the trees just start to turn and there is still some green on them.

What a great contrast!

We recently went out in search of the perfect pumpkin at a farm near the Amish town of Grabill. It was a little slim pickings again this year, but it was still leaps and bounds better than last years pumpkin crop. I was worried since I had heard that this year it was the lack of rain-instead of too much like last year-that was going to make it harder to grow a good pumpkin. In spite of all this, I think we found the most perfect pumpkins to date.

I love this barn on the way to the pumpkin patch!

The Pumpkin Patch! You can see some pumpkins still in the field in the background.

These three pumpkins just looked exactly how pumpkins are supposed to look. They are the perfect shape, size, and color. And I loved their stems! The stems are just as important as anything else when choosing a good pumpkin.

Gigantic pumpkins! I always want to get one (okay, like three) of these for my yard. I suspect it would take a crane to lift them though.

A lot of the pumpkins were missing their stems and most of the ones that had them were very mushy.

They've got great mums too!

I'll take them all, please!

Pumpkins are the best fall decor you can possibly get. If you don't carve them they will usually last all the way from September to November. They encompass all of Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. My conundrum this year is whether to actually carve one, or all, of my perfect pumpkins or leave them as is. I am the recent recipient of a fake plastic carved jack-o-lantern that lights up and I have to admit that I am seriously considering using that for Halloween. I guess we will see what this weekend brings.

The pumpkins at their new home on my porch!

If you are lucky enough to live in an area where the leaves change, make sure you get out as soon as possible and enjoy them because unfortunately, the beauty of fall is so very fleeting.