Monday oh Monday... I normally adore Mondays. I find them promising... I find them full of hope and promise. The weekend is over. We must get up and get back into the daily grind and the rushing around but as we start new projects, or finish old projects we can look at them anew... with a fresh pair of eyes we can put that right final touch on that project that's been looming overhead for a while now. And we can take on new projects with clarity and inspiration. I've always thought of Mondays to be like mini New Year's offering great new beginnings. I'm not Pollyanna though I do believe in the fairy tale!

But my problem, this Monday, has nothing at all to do with chores, work, or To Do lists. It has to do with the weather. It's fall now. We're almost into October. Here in Connecticut the leaves are just starting to turn. We're supposed to embrace our cooler days and nights. We're supposed to wrap ourselves in warm blankets, cashmere sweaters, broken in jeans and our favorite boots. We're supposed to walk around with cups of Pumpkin Spice Lattes or warm apple cider, eat apple cider donuts, go apple and pumpkin picking in our scenic, rural orchards and patches. We're supposed to bake pumpkin bread whose sweet and spicy scent will gracefully float through the house instilling the thrill of autumn. We're supposed to be getting our chimneys ready for logs and fires... I want my fuzzy socks and flannel sheets. I want fall. I want to set pumpkins on my mantel... the white ones are my favorites. I want to bake apple pies and have bowls of freshly picked apples scattered around... for decoration as well as for aroma.

I don't want to have the air conditioning on. I don't want to always wonder what to wear. Whites -- except for jeans -- now all packed away and now it's too hot for even jeans. Sun dresses are not appropriate and it's too hot to layer over them. The  blasted humidity makes our 80 degree weather that much more uncomfortable. I don't want to feel sticky. I don't care that the humidity does wonders for my skin. My hair doesn't like it. I don't like it. I'm sick of iced tea and watermelon and Popsicles. I'm sick of you, Summer. I loved you once very much. But you have overstayed your visit and you are not welcome anymore. Go to Australia where you belong!