Ah, autumn! I dig the way you make me crave oatmeal (with cinnamon and almonds and honey, please), snuggle with my husband more, and how you bring color to my cheeks with your brisk wind, and fill my neighborhood with the smells of wood smoke and old oil furnaces firing up for the season.

But there are parts of summer I’ll miss. The long evenings, for one thing. The way a cold beer is so refreshing after a sweaty bike ride or kickball game. Iced tea, too–OK, basically all cold beverages. And of course the wonderful ability to step out my back door and harvest some fresh vegetables for dinner.

Fall really seems to have set in here in Richmond. (Proof: today I am wearing a sweater AND a scarf, and I even turned our heat on–pretty low, but it counts.) I keep thinking about how various things are the “last of the season” lately…like when Ben and I went canoeing last week, or yesterday when I picked all of our garden’s remaining basil and made a ginormous batch of pesto in order to preserve it.

Not that change isn’t good. It’s actually kind of refreshing to let something cycle out of your life for a little while–makes it seem newer the next time it comes around. This year we’ll be making a real effort to buy and eat mostly produce that’s in season locally, and as much as I’d love a fresh, juicy blueberry (OK, more like a quart of them) right now, I have a feeling that the first one I pop into my mouth after 6+ months without them is going to be an epic experience. And anyway, I have a bowl full of chestnuts to roast.

Saw Whip It last night with two lovely lady friends. ‘Twas delightful (and expectedly campy). Afterward we all agreed that 1) we totally have girl-crushes on Ellen Page, and 2) the film made roller derby seem WAY sexier than did the real-life roller derby team passing out fliers outside the theater. Another case of life not imitating art.

Speaking of life-art imitations, I feel a bit as if I’ve been whip-it-ed (how does one form the past tense of “whip it”? whipped-it?) myself this week. It’s just been a whole slew of happenings and obligations and deadlines and responsibilities, one seeming to crowd in right on top of the last — but not in a wholly bad or overwhelming way. I mean, I like being busy. This week the busy-ness has been compounded by the fact that my hubby’s out of town. (But he’s on his way home right now, yay!)

The highlight reel:

• had a super-fun humpday happy hour with a handful of wonderful women and loads of delicious eats that I had a ball preparing (you MUST make these brownies from Smitten Kitchen, and this white bean-cherry tomato salad from Simply Recipes — both are divine). PLUS, close to half of the ingredients I used came from our garden! Double win!
• experienced my most successful week of Etsy sales yet: six sales since Tuesday! I’m stoked about having such a positive shop relaunch, and brimming with new ideas for things to make and do.
• got to eat all the leftover brownies myself since Ben’s away.
• it’s really starting to feel and even look like fall in Richmond, and the weather this week was decidedly on the cooler side of crisp. Bonus: Our A/C hasn’t run since last Sunday.
• finally, I was going to leave you with a magical video to enjoy, but YouTube seems to be down. Do yourself a favor and search for “fleet foxes tiger mountain peasant song cover” next time you’re YouTube-ing. You won’t be sorry. (Thanks to Tarfia for bringing this wonderful video to my attention.)