Showing my patriotism, and fear of the midnight hour

I think it is safe to say that autumn has arrived in New England. It arrived with almost perfect timing, exactly 3 days following the annual Seafood Festival on Hampton Beach, which is the big to-do that closes out the summer. {one of my favorite weekends of the summer btw}

Autumn is my favorite season of the year, and I don't think I'm alone in that. When you live in a place like New England in the fall, it almost has to be your favorite season. Sure, we all love summertime, and sun tanned skin, beach days, and hiking and fishing and swimming, boating...and the list could go on. But I know that deep down, in the heart of every New Englander, they are a little bit giddy at the thought of the quickly approaching season. You hear mutterings everywhere. "I can't wait to wear my cute fall clothes", "I can't wait to go apple and pumpkin picking"...or my personal favorite, "When is football season gonna be here already!". {I am kind of a fanatic, and most decidedly a life long Patriot's fan, regardless if they blow the first home opener game since 2001, when they had it clinched......{sigh} 

I'll get over it soon...I hope.

No, today wasn't a good day for New England football. But, it was a perfect autumn Sunday afternoon. The air was crisp, the leaves are starting to change, my aunt Kate made homemade apple pie with fresh picked apples and pumpkinhead was on tap. That's another unmistakable sign of fall. 

{All things pumpkin}

I was just sitting here thinking about it, and in the last 2 weeks I've drank Pumpkinhead beer multiple times (at home and at the bar with a cinnamon and sugar rim....delicious), I've had dunk's pumpkin coffee, made DD's pumpkin coffee at home in my french press, had pumpkin cinnamon frappucino at Breaking New Grounds, made homemade organic pumpkin ice cream, homemade pumpkin cream cheese muffins and pumpkinhead beer cake. Phew!

Thank goodness for my bedtime of 10:30pm, instituted by my new naturopathic doctor, or I might turn into a pumpkin at midnight!

Here's a glimpse...they didn't last long.

Not a great thing to have around the house when your doctor has asked you to remove all flour and sugar from your diet....{sigh}...again.

Next up is homemade applesauce, hot apple cider and apple crisp at the Fryburg fair. Wait...no flour or sugar? Ugh...and yes, again....{sigh}.