Let’s face the truth: fall is coming. And already here actually. First thing to say about it, I’ve never seen so far seasons so well “organized”: the day before fall, it looks like a summer day and on the first day of fall, I could already feel some slight differences: wind and chilly air – which by the way forced me to leave sandals in the closet and to wear a scarf on my bike. Fall in Boston is supposed to be the trendy season: everybody shows up to see the fall foliage here and in New England. Before showing some cute tree leaves pics, there it is the Fall to-do list I made in order to miss nothing from our first fall here.
I like fall rain…
1. Admire New England fall foliage
Everybody talks about it, it’s the it-moment of the year. Everybody wants to see crazy leaves colors and trees going “on fire”. I am very ready for this and I even got a map to follow the tree leaves changes. Estimated success rate: 98% (even if we stay in Boston we’ll enjoy it).
2. Bake a pumpkin pie
Winter squashes of every shapes and colors are on every market stands. I do have my favorite soups or entrees recipes (coconut milk and squash soup and the delicious squash French fries are on top of my list) but I have to learn to bake a cake with squashes, and specially the pumpkin pie. This is American classic. Estimated success rate: 80 % (we already get all the vegetables in our weekly CSA box, I just need to find out recipes)
3. Celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving for the first time
My knifes are ready to cut pumpkins: I do want one at my place, like in movies! To celebrate Halloween we should go to Salem, the city has a whole program during the whole month of October! I was already asked about my costume, I don’t have any idea yet though. And at the end of November, it will be our first Thanksgiving. I’ll also have a few holidays. Great! I already have serious leads to celebrate it as we should – turkey and food basically.
Estimated success rate: 47 % (I’m 100% I’ll do a jack-o-lantern; but for the rest, I still need to find a welcoming family)
4/ Buy rain boots
I left Paris 10 months ago with only 2 pieces of luggage. One of the advantage is that I have to buy all I need season after season, and fall was the last one. About the rain boots, I know that these are completely ugly. But this is one thing I’ve learned living in the United States: I had to get rid of the saying “don’t consider comfort for clothes”. Rain already ruined some of my leather shoes so I really need to invest in rain boots. I discover a whole world of rain boots brands. I still hesitate between 2 of them: LL Bean (a local brand from Maine) and Hunter (but the name scares me). Estimated success rate: 75 % (I need to decide for the right pair soon)
5. Don’t stop running
That’s the main problem of fall: days are shorter. I don’t really want to on the dark with a neon jacket to avoid being hit. I’ve started running at the begining of June (this change of life still surprises me) and I don’t want to do a winter break. There’s a groups of people here in Boston, called The November Project. They started it because they were aware of a recurrent issue: people usually stops working out during winter; they decided to meet 3 times of week at 6am, mo matter how the weather is like. It’s free and people get together to train. The program scares me though, it seems more than tough.
Estimated success rate: 25 % (I still want to believe in it…)
And what about your Fall to-do list?
