Goodbye summer, hello fall...

I had great hopes of sharing a recipe (with picture) today, but life intervened with more pressing issues.

Here in Southern California, we're soaking in warm days as cool nights tiptoe in. Around my neighborhood pumpkins are beginning to dot some front yards. A bit early, but a festive reminder of what's to come.

To those who relish fall...enjoy the handprint that this season makes; one rich with color and crisp with promise. Here is a poem to honor today's autumnal equinox:


Gilded Skies

Fall pulls down the shade on summer
as it stretches our shadows, shortens
our days and cools our air.

But determined to take its last stand,
the piecing sun still rallies forth,
toasting leaves to pumpkin orange
and pomegranate red in a show of
heated glory.

This autumnal sky, though filled with
fire, waves goodbye on its horizontal
descent, passing from one season to
another in a slow farewell, honeyed
hues sprawling like a shawl across the
land--a gilded spell cast on those below.