Tag: autumn

TBT^65,536: The Joy of Autumn

The Portly Politico10 Comments

Monday was the first day of autumn—hurray!  I’m unapologetically in the pro-autumn camp, and love all the hokey stuff that comes with the season:  pumpkin spiced everything, Halloween, leaves, fall festivals, apple orchards, crisp mornings, etc.  If I were a woman, I’d probably get a PSL at Starb’s everyday (assuming that, as a woman, I’d have my reckless spending bankrolled by the various beta orbiters around me).

I have core childhood memories of fall that further enhance the coziness of the season.  I have a vivid-yet-fuzzy memory (a self-contradictory paradox, yes, but I hope you take my meaning, dear reader) of coming home from school one overcast autumn day to fresh-baked cookies.  I can still remember the soft lamplight emanating from homes and the way the colors of the season popped in the grey afternoon.  I can faintly remember the smell and the warmth of the cookies.

It’s a season for gathering closely with family and friends, of preparing for the long, dark winter with joy and merriment.  It’s no coincidence that yours portly is getting married in late autumn!

What are your favorite autumnal activities?  Let me know in the comments.

With that, here is 26 September 2024’s “TBT^256: The Joy of Autumn“:

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TBT^256: The Joy of Autumn

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After weeks of indeterminate weather, shifting from wintry frostiness to high summer heat and humidity, it seems that autumn has finally, noncommittally arrived.  It’s “noncommittal” because we’re still experiencing these weird snaps of rainy humidity that, rather than lowering the temperature, somehow increase it, and the insufferable mugginess along with it.

This muggy November weather gives me a case of the horribles, but today the low is 38 degrees Fahrenheit, with a high of 57.  Glorious!  That’s the kind of weather for which this South Carolinian lives.

Longtime readers will know that I love the fall.  The heat and humidity break, and I can finally wear nicer clothes without the fear of roasting alive.  Most of my career I have basted in dress shirts and sports coats, so it’s refreshing when I can wear those—and even a professorial sweater vest!—and not break a doughy, obese sweat.

Obviously, Halloween is a major highlight of autumn.  Another major one is Thanksgiving, that celebratory gateway to Christmas.  It is a season for celebrating the year’s achievements—and for settling into cozy hibernation mode.

So I say, bring on the long, cold nights!  Bring on the late afternoon cup of decaf!  Bring on the quiet mornings with LEGOs and God’s Word.

In short, bring on the hygge.

With that, here is 28 September 2023’s “TBT^16: The Joy of Autumn“:

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TBT^256: The Joy of Autumn

The Portly Politico13 Comments

Autumn has arrived, and even though it’s still hotter than Balzac here in South Carolina, I’m getting ready for spooky season.  I spent this past Saturday deep cleaning my house in anticipation of the annual Spooktacular (just a month away!) and to make sure the place looks good for the floozies.

There’s something about the fall that inspires industriousness.  Part of it is the cooler weather, but  it’s also the time to get things done before the long, lazy winter months arrive.  I love the winter, but when the sun sets at 5 PM, all I want to do is eat hot pizza and watch cheesy horror movies before collapsing into a salt-induced food coma on my plaid couch.

The autumn, on the other hand, encourages activity.  Perhaps it is a holdover from the days when the autumn meant the harvest, and everyone had to busy themselves with bringing in the sheaves.

Regardless, I love this time of year most of all, and I am excited for more opportunities to explore God’s Creation, catch up with friends and family, and enjoy good music.  ‘Tis the season!

With that, here is 28 September 2023’s “TBT^16: The Joy of Autumn“:

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TBT^16: The Joy of Autumn

The Portly Politico2 Comments

This year is the first time I’ve noticed a pop cultural excitement for autumn.  Sure, people love talking about “sweater weather” and Spooky Season, but this year it’s everywhere.  I’ve witnessed dozen of memes all gleefully proclaiming the arrival of fall before August even had a chance to expire.

The pumpkin spiced everything trend is also back in a big way, and marketers have gone all in to cater to single women with disposable incomes.  In this case, lump me in with the single women.  While I haven’t bought gallons pumpkin spiced lattes (now trendily abbreviated as “PSLs”), I certainly appreciate pumpkin flavoring.

Besides, who doesn’t love the festive rotundity of pumpkins?  They’re so round and jolly—the charismatic, carotene-rich cousins to the lumpy squash.

So it is that I happily greet the start of autumn, even if that does make me a girl.

With that, here is “TBT^4: The Joy of Autumn“:

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Lazy Sunday CLXX: Cozy Time

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It’s still hot and humid here in South Carolina, but we’re tantalizingly close to the cozy season—the “hygge,” as our Danish friends call it.  In anticipation of autumnal coziness to come, I decided to look back some of the coziest posts TPP has to offer:

Here’s to a warm cup of coffee on a crisp autumnal day—tarantulas optional.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

TBT^4: Hand it to Handel

The Portly Politico3 Comments

Autumn is here, and it’s a time for music!  There is something about the fall that makes music even better.  Sure, summertime is for outdoor concerts and music festivals, but I find music sounds better in the fall.

There is some science behind this feeling:  sound waves travel farther in colder weather.  It has something to do with air particles being further apart in the cold, so sound waves can keep going.  I’m sure I’m explaining it incorrectly, and I’m too lazy to look it up, but just trust me on this one.

Unfortunately, I am no longer teaching the Pre-AP Music Appreciation course that saw me steeped in the best that medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, classical, Romantic, and modern composers had to offer.  That doesn’t mean I have to stop enjoying these composers, though!

One of my all-time faves—and a composer who is quintessentially English, even if he’s German—is George Frideric Handel.  His works are among the finest from the Baroque period.

With that, here is 18 November 2021’s “TBT: Hand it to Handel“:

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TBT^4: The Joy of Autumn

The Portly Politico7 Comments

Today is the first day of autumn.  It’s about dang time!

Granted, I realize that autumn shows up on the calendar the same time every year.  Whether (weather?) or not it makes a meteorological appearance or not, however, is a bit dicey in South Carolina.  It’s very likely to be quite warm today—in the mid-nineties as of the time of this writing.  We’re enjoying some cooler, crisper mornings, with a bit lower humidity, but it’s still very much summer here in South Carolina.

Nevertheless, pumpkin spiced-everything is already in stores, so even if it feels like we’re about to attend a pool party, we can enjoy the tastes of autumn here.

Autumn is my favorite season, even though it is fleeting.  The period from Labor Day through Christmas is a blur of activity, with nary a weekend free for all the fall activities we see on television and in the movies.  Apple picking looks fun, but who has the time?

On the plus side, Halloween will be here soon.  It seems that folks have started decorating much earlier this year than usual—or have I missed something?  Some people had decorations up in August, which seems as blasphemous as hanging Christmas lights before Thanksgiving.

But I digress.  With that, here is 23 September 2022’s “TBT^2: The Joy of Autumn“:

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Son of Sonnet: Change

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I approached the poet Son of Sonnet about writing a little something for the slowly approaching autumnality that I crave, and after demurring initially, he popped out this little gem about the changing of the seasons—of the world, to be sure, but also of our lives.

I’m always eager for fall weather, but Son’s poem is a good reminder that we always forget the lows that come with each season, instead focusing on the highs.

Perhaps that’s not all bad; after all, how else are we to endure the heat and humidity of summer if we don’t forget them briefly and think about the pool parties and barbecues instead?

With that, here is “Change” by Son of Sonnet:

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TBT^2: The Joy of Autumn

The Portly Politico31 Comments

Well, the first day of autumn was yesterday, although my Middle School Music students came into class Tuesday saying that their Geography teacher told them 21 September, rather than 22 September, was the first day of this glorious holiday.

I have little idea when the seasons calendrically begin, other than it’s always in the low-twenties of the month:  Spring in March, Summer in June, Autumn in September, and Winter in December.  As I’ve noted before on this site, in South Carolina it’s all pretty much one big season—summer—with some intermittent sprinklings of the actual season throughout the year.  That can even mean a cold front in the summer (Thy Will Be Done) or an unseasonably warm “Indian Summer” in mid-January.  I’ve sweated on New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving many times, and it’s always muggy on Halloween.

But I digress.  The discussion about when autumn really begins (some Bing!ing revealed it is 22 September this year, not 21 September) led to an impromptu crash course in songwriting.  We began listing all of the qualities of the fall, and the qualities of the then-soon-to-be-departing summer.  The students then crafted those into verses (about all the fun summertime stuff that was disappearing), with the chorus being all about how great the autumn is:  pumpkins, scarecrows, falling leaves, etc.

The kids ate it up.  I made up some cheesy crooner melody to go with it as a placeholder, but a precocious seventh grader began experimenting with an unusual C-Db-Eb chord sequence, which completely changed the melody.  I broke the students into groups to begin writing new verses, and another student took it upon herself to compile the lyrics into a master Google Doc.  Another student—a visual artist trapped in Music class—supplied the artwork for our soon-to-be-hit single, featuring a scarecrow and some other creature dancing around a flaming pumpkin (it’s pretty awesome).  Our little scribe-compiler mentioned that we needed a bridge, so we’ll have to get hopping on that.

It was completely unplanned—one student even suggested, snarkily, that I hadn’t planned a lesson that day, so I created this one out of thin air.  It’s only half true:  I did have a lesson planned—we were going to write, clap, and count rhythm lines—but the discussion of autumn sparked the idea for a much more engaging lesson about writing songs (which is, essentially, writing poetry, but better—there’s music attached!).

Anyway, here’s to autumnal weather to come—and good, middle school-penned songs to go with it.

With that, here is “TBT: The Joy of Autumn” (thanks to Pontiac Dreamer for today’s picture!):

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Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2021]!

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Well, it’s another Labor Day here in the States, and I couldn’t be happier.  Last week was a slog, but a productive one—I managed to get caught up on all grading and even get a good bit of writing done, even though I was suffering from a gnarly head cold.  Hopefully by the time you read this I am on the mend.  I’ll have spent the weekend enjoying some rest and relaxation in Athens, Georgia, with my girlfriend and our dogs.

It being Labor Day, I’m going to observe the holiday in the spirit intended, and keep enjoying the rest.  That means some glorious reblogging today, looking back past Labor Day posts.

Labor Day has always been a pleasant holiday early in the academic year—the symbolic end of summer, and a chance to catch one’s breath before the mad dash to Thanksgiving.  It also seems to usher in the “spooky” season building up to Halloween.

As a child, we used to attend a massive Labor Day picnic my childhood church hosted every year at a campground in a rural portion of Aiken County.  I loved that picnic, especially the opportunity to explore the woods with a fried chicken leg in my hand.  It was a chance to play at being an adventurer, while still indulging in my beloved childhood obesity.

I’m not sure if there will be any picnicking today, but I can assure you I’ll be eating something decadent and unhealthy.  With that, here is “Memorable Monday IV: Happy Labor Day [2020]!“:

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