So long summer.

Each year we exit summer with a trip to Maine during the week of labor day.  We pack up our car with a stock of fruit for snacking, we hoist the windows open and wear out the last of our summer gear - somehow the world is transformed during the week we are away.  We return ready to pull out our sweaters, make a great batch of soup and sit fireside (well, maybe not quite yet, but I did seek out a wonderful bowl of chicken and rice soup today). 

I love this transforrmation.  Somehow, I am never quite ready for it, but there is excitement in the air.  This is my favorite time of the year.  It's no spring, but there is new a newness the first signs of fall. The smell of new leather as the kids return back to school, cider donuts and mums popping up all around,  wrapping your hands around a hot coffee mug, the air brisk enough to make you add an extra layer...fall is the great excuse for coziness.

So tomorrow we exit Maine - the world of daily lobster dinners, days of doing nothing, and sitting seaside in our sweaters to return home.  Summer has somehow packed up and left us this week.  The freshness of summer is traded in for the crispness of fall.

So long summer.  It was a good one.