SEASONAL LIVING AT ARCADIAN REVIVAL

Ah, October…a favorite month at first glance before slowing down to recall that there is a time for true beauty throughout each season of the year. October stands strong as a month that often feels like it could represent autumn all on its own. The height of pleasant cold air met with bright sun, setting the stage for a perfect fall day adorned with a favorite sweater, leather boots, and warm beverage in hand.

At home, we’re still busy harvesting apples from our McIntosh apple trees, and baking apple pies. Perhaps we’ll become eager for a pumpkin pie too, but will save a second for Thanksgiving to prolong the anticipation of a special holiday dessert. Our menu in the kitchen shifts to cold weather dishes, and the return of bone-in pork chops with a cranberry-cherry jam finds its way back into the mix.

It’s the month of pumpkins, and you can rarely have too many. We like to bring ours out early in the season, and pick up a few more for carving with the kids along the way. We’ve made a tradition of carving pumpkins just a couple of days before the end of the month, another intentional choice to heighten the fleeting excitement of All Hallows’ Eve.

We especially love walks, runs, and drives this time of year…with our country road the perfect backdrop to take in the fall foliage, and for our proximity to the Adirondacks as a welcome refuge into the wilderness of crisp leaves and colors brightly reflecting on the areas’ many bodies of freshwater lakes.

October feels like the last month that our gardens feel full before turning dormant through the winter months. Our native plants leave a strong mark in the late season of our gardens, with surprise appearances from the bees keeping us aware of the magic of nature when we might otherwise feel ready to move indoors.