1. Every store in town- even hairdressers and real estate agents - has pumpkins in its window.
2. Every mother in town already has her child's Halloween costume sorted - even though it's still over a month away...
3. Farm shops you've never noticed before burst into riotous colour with hundreds of - you've guessed it - pumpkins, plus bouncy castles and hayride-tractors.
4. Exclusive beaches which were formerly 'residents only' become open to any lowlife with unruly toddlers (ie.us)
5. The 'Northeast beach temperatures' section in the New York Times suddenly turns to 'Northeast foliage watch'. Instead of fantasising about weekends at Virginia Beach, you can fantasise about leaf-peeping in New England.
6. There is a severe danger of falling acorns braining you as you step out of the front door.
7. You are also woken up at daybreak by the sound of acorns dropping onto the roof. This, I finally worked out, means the squirrels have woken up.
8. Enormous spiders lurk in the basement, turning forays below to do laundry into something out of an Indiana Jones movie.
9. The aisle in the supermarket that, in August, became 'Halloween' themed, is now half Halloween and half Christmas decorations; yes, tinsel, in September.
10. You suddenly start scouring the museums, films and children's theatre sections of the papers as you realise there might not be that much to do on Long Island in the winter....
13 comments:
Make sure you get up to New England for leaf-peeping. It's spectacular.
A lot of Americanisms irrationally annoy me. But the phrase 'leaf-peeping' is wonderful!
You're so lucky to be having a proper 'fall.' I love all the pumpkins everywhere but I'm always amazed at how much money is spent on Halloween over here. Have fun Trick or Treating!
Leaf-peeping... I'm intrigued! Have to say I would love all of that stuff as I'm such a sucker for all the changing of the seasons stuff. Small Child now puts in a hundred extra steps at least on the way to school as she goes out of her way to tread on all the acorns!
Award for you over at mine!
I hope the acorns are being collected by Scrat.
Leaf peeping?
I know - I am already a bit pumkin'd out. This year - this year! - I will buy some actual pumpkins and make the time to carve them AND make pumpkin bars with butter icing on the top and roast the pumpkin seeds we scoop out of the pumpkins. Unless I can get away for yet another year of not doing it of course...
Museums, films and theatres? Sounds like there's plenty to do. But will you have time? You've got to decorate your house for fall, then take all that down and decorate it for Thanksgiving, then take all that down and decorate it for Christmas. You've got to get the boys' Hallowe'en costumes sorted out. You've got to plan and then cook your Thanksgiving dinner. You've got to plan Christmas. You're going leaf-peeping. You're going to be busy.
Ooh, hello again, just going to spend a quiet evening catching up with you. You don't mind do you?
Do any of your new American friends read your blog? What do they think? x
Expat Mum - already booked it. Five days in Connecticut, late-October. Hope it hasn't all gone by then!
Mud - yes, it is rather wonderful, although it also sounds slightly naughty, I'm not sure why....
Lorna - apparently a lot of the pumpkin crop has failed this year because they had so much rain in the northeast - heard an item on the radio this morning about it!
That Girl - I enjoy it too, and it's nice to have some proper seasons - too much of the time in London it's hard to tell which one is which!
Martini Mummy - thank you! Very grateful.
NB - the squirrels round here look a lot like Scrat. Which would make sense, him being an American squirrel and all.....
Nicola - I was hoping I could let nursery deal with all the pumpkin palaver...?
Iota - yes indeed. Although not at all sure what to do for Thanksgiving. The Doctor says there's no point buying a turkey for two (the boys won't eat it) - I quite fancy having a party for all the expat Europeans we've met.
MH - I haven't told anyone here that I blog. I'd rather keep that bit anonymous for the moment...although I'm sure they would be able to work it out if they saw/read the blog. It's not that I want to be rude about people or anything- but I'd be worried about letting people I don't know very well read what I think about everything....
I would love to be there! I really like fall than summer and I don't know why. The feeling is so relaxing and of course, the color!
I still can't get used to calling autumn "fall" after being over here 20 years! And, yeah not much fall foliage watching goes on here in Florida! LOL
Sounds lovely. x
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