When it comes to the seasons of the year autumn is one that is more about slowing down and admiring what's around you. Since it brings some calm to the chaos of the last few months of spring and summer with traveling and the hustle and bustle that is to come with the holidays. Time feels like it slows down and things are taking its time as schools open back up, people are more focused on decorating their homes for the season and Halloween, and kids playing outside for the last time before the first snow falls. However, autumn in my hometown is what most would think of when it comes to the ideal autumn. The sights, sounds and even smells of autumn just makes this time that much more magical as you slow down and take your mind back to simpler times when stress of work and family were non-existent.

     Its the definition of a small northeastern town as there are more trees and grass in town than in more developed towns and cities nearby. It's also an old town as some buildings that were built in the mid 1800s still stand to this day. Most of the houses have some form of colonial style in the design such as large covered front porches and big windows among most of the homes that stand usually three to four stories which include the basement, but the more modest homes have smaller porches and not as many massive windows usually around three or four in the front of the house and just three stories tall. The siding is either your traditional looking siding or brick along with higher pitched roofs due to the harsher winters in the area. 

     The yard is covered with autumn leaves that crack and crunch under your feet as the voices of kids can be heard as they play in the leaves. The house itself is decorated for Halloween with decorative leaf bags that look like jack o lanterns that line the front garden in front of the bushes in the garden in front of the house. On the porch up on the decorative beam was a corn stalk interlaced with the decorative metalwork in between. Taped on the door is a cartoonish scarecrow that is posed as if it was waving.

     The streets of the town are decorated as such as well, the lamp posts have fall decorations such as scarecrows lining the sidewalks outside businesses for the annual festival as the air smells faintly of apples, spices, and leaves. The sweet smells only gets stronger as you walk into town as the bakeries are baking pies and other goods. 

     As time marches on as does life, and to most autumn means endings. But to others it simply means to reflect and look back on things that you have and appreciate them. As life tends to be a swirling void of chaos and stress. There is nothing wrong with finding a time to just breathe and relax which can be difficult for many. However, in the season of autumn it isn’t hard to find as long as you just slow down a bit and let that magic find its way to you and take you back to the simple days of youth. A northern autumn while is considered ideal, where you are in that ideal autumn adds an extra bit of magic to that spell and for me at least, that place is my hometown.