Soon, we will forget how much we complained about the summer heat when winter’s first frigid winds come blowing through. But let’s pause and smell the leaves and enjoy what I believe is the best time of year – autumn.

Autumn can have so many different meanings. It’s a time of harvest and abundance; a time of storing and saving for the long winter season ahead; a time of festivity and reunion. And like every season, autumn has its unique events, sights, sounds and smells.

Author Stanley Horowitz wrote, “Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.” I couldn’t agree more.

So many images come to mind – a new school year, a marching band echoing the school fight song from a jammed stadium, rakes and snow shovels moving up in status in the garage, sweater weather, great coat weather, then boots and parkas.

Can’t forget about The Great Pumpkin, Thanksgiving, homecomings, the taste of hot cider, a turkey roasting through the afternoon, hot apple pie, large round mums, caramel apples on a stick, and the last lawn mow. But most of all autumn means colored leaves – a spectrum of hues between the greens of summer and the dull browns of winter.

Homegrown produce will continue to be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Wednesday through Oct. 12 at the Farmers’ Market on Church Street in Waynesburg.

For more delicious food and entertainment, I urge everyone to visit either the White Covered Bridge in Garards Fort or the Carmichaels Covered Bridge during the county’s celebration of the 41st annual Covered Bridge Festival Sept. 17 and 18. You will find many more Greene County fall events on page 40.

Remember what Albert Camus, a French Algerian author and philosopher said, “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”

Go and embrace this new season.