is for Bonfires fueled by huge piles of Autumn leaves.

is for Cherries, from our own cherry tree when we lived in the Tacoma, WA, area.

is for Dandelions, thriving with their bright yellow tops till the first good frost.

is for Bald Eagles feeding in the fields or near the many banks in Turtle Lake, WI.

is for Fall, my favorite season.

is for Great Birthdays (especially mine).

is for Halloween, to make you laugh and hear your SCREAMS.

is for four-foot Icicles in the rocky canyons of the Finger Lakes area, NY.

is for Jackets and its finally being cool enough in TX to wear them again.

is for Kids' Kites soaring aloft in clear blue skies over Zilker Park as the first Fall norther pushes through central TX.

is for Lots of Laughter as children play hide and seek, cops and robbers, jacks, football, and a host of other cool games in our streets and yards as the days grow shorter.

is for Monarch Butterfly Migrations passing through Austin, Waco, or their environs.

is for Notebooks I'd fill with drawings, writings, or pages of pressed leaves from the tall maples, oaks, and sycamores that lined our streets in Oneida, NY.

is for Oatmeal with raisins, wheat germ, butter, milk, pecan pieces, and brown sugar from cool restaurants on neat October driving trips.

is for Peri who loves to run around like an idiot in the first frosty days of fall.

is coveys of Quail flushed by bird dogs and flying off low to the ground, their wings seeming too small to lift such plump, fluffy little bodies.

is for the Red-faced Harvest Moon during a lunar eclipse.

is for Sleet and Snow, rarities in central or southern TX, which, when they occur even briefly, can close down the roads and schools, despite which there are always scores of motor vehicle accidents.

is for going off Daylight Saving Time and getting an extra hour as we "fall back."

is for Long Underwear, often a necessity as the cold descends in northern states like WI, IL, or NY.

is for the similarly shaped Vectors of large waterfowl or cranes heading south and the various cheerful honking, quacking, calling, or chortling sounds they make overhead while passing through.

is for Winter on the way, the next best thing to Autumn, guaranteeing, where I live, roughly half a year more of reasonable temperatures.

is for eXtra eXercises I feel like doing, eXtra sleep with the covers pulled up, and eXtra fun "working" outdoors, because it feels so good on crisp mornings, during mild nights, or through the blustery bright days.

is for all the Yellows, browns, and reds, a cornucopia of color in multiple shades, filling the forests, bordering each lane, with aspens, maples, sycamores, pecans, oaks... their leaves each turning, the hue variations too many to name.

is for Zero, the number of hours left before our Fall fun can commence.