My favourite time of year - Donna Alward

Fall is my absolute favourite time of year. Even as a kid - I anticipated it more than the first snows of winter, or the arrival of mild spring days. I even loved it more than that last day of school and first day of summer vacation. For me, September was wonderful.

This picture is of the New Brunswick Agriculture Minister who happens to have the last name of Alward, and of Allison Carlisle, who bought our farm from us in the late 80's - so this is really where I grew up! Including the bins and the picking buckets.

September meant so many things. I grew up on an apple farm, so it meant picking, and packing, and crews coming back year after year. It meant crisp mornings and cool evenings and a sky so blue it would almost break your heart...there is nothing like a September sky. It meant back to school - seeing friends I hadn't seen all summer, fresh notebooks, sharp pencils, new books. It meant sports and band and all the other fun things that come with the school year.

I had to walk up the hill for the school bus, and about mid-September one of my favourite apple varieties was ripe. I'd stop at the very first row of the orchard and pick one on my way to the bus stop. And in the evenings, I'd hang out with my dad, writing on packing boxes or stickering bags, or just watching tv and doing homework.

I still look forward to it. When the sun loses its summer brashness and takes on the mellow warmth of fall, when the leaves start to change colours and you don't need to cut the grass every other day. (Incidentally - one of the things I'm looking forward to most is the leaves this year. Out west, we just didn't get the same colours. It was lovely and gilded but I missed the wild oranges and radiant reds.) When the weather changes and the days get shorter, that memory recall gives me a good feeling - it's back to school time. I feel like getting organized. Like learning something new. Like taking long walks and the moist smell of leaves on the ground. It reminds me of university, and going to new classes, and walking to the library in the afternoons, and having coffee in the cafeteria between lectures.


Of course, these days back to school also means an emptier house as the kids now get to make that walk to the school bus. I get back to a normal work routine. I exercise more. I get organized -and I freeze a lot of food. It's like I'm making my own little preparations for winter.

Now if I could only prepare myself right into having my next book completed....