Tunes : For Autumn

I'm realizing how quickly fall passes through Southern California. It takes until the beginning of November for it to make an appearance and just a few short weeks after that, everything is covered with Christmas decorations and autumn kind of falls second fiddle to the 'holiday' season.

In a way, maybe that's why it feels so special while it's here.

Here are a few of the songs that give me that refreshing "fall" feeling.
To me, they sound like warm apple cider, crunchy leaves, brisk cloudy mornings, and warm knit scarves. ;)

♫ listen on spotify

There has always been this one beloved tree, a Liquidambar, in our front yard. It was probably the only indication of seasons on our block. In the summer, the next-door-neighbor kids and I would picnic underneath it's huge green leaves. In the fall, it was only tree that shed it's red, yellow, and orange leaves, which we'd sweep and rake into a giant pile to jump in. In the winter it was bare, and I would look out my bedroom window, right through it's empty branches in anticipation of the first little green buds that would appear. We even "decorated" it for Christmas many times - with hula hoop ornaments and jump rope garlands. In the spring, it's little flowers would fall, giving us plenty of ingredients to make pretend "pea soup" in our sand buckets with it's green powder and some good ol' hose water.

A few weeks ago, the tree got cut down. It wasn't producing any more leaves and it's insides were being chewed up by insects so it was only a matter of time. My next door neighbor had planted it 24 years ago, around the time his son was born, and I think all of us probably feel that same little sadness when we look at the stump that is left there. It feels like the end of The Giving Tree.

But I'm so thankful for the tree that gave me the slightest glimpse of seasons as a kid.
Even here in the suburbs of sunny Southern California.

What songs make you feel like fall?
I'd love some new additions to my playlist. Send a suggestion or two my way!