Autumn: A Feast for the Senses
Close your eyes. What does fall smell like to you? When I think of fall here in New Mexico, I associate it with roasting chile. You may be saying to yourself, I have no idea what that means. But if you live in New Mexico or have ever spent any time here in the fall, you are familiar with our state’s love of red and green chile (It’s even our state question!)
Each fall during chile roasting season, chile purveyors put the peppers in large wire cages, and they rotate them over an open flame, which makes the skins slough off. The smell is comforting, a mixture of sage and campfire. It’s not even so much what it smells like, but that it evokes a sense of home, tradition, and gathering with family and friends. It opens your senses like a jolt of caffeine.
What about sights you associate with fall where you live? I’m eager to see the vibrant foliage of the
cottonwood trees that line the bosque along the winding Rio Grande as it runs through the middle of the city. Fall also means the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, and waking up each morning to seeing colorful hot air balloons dotting our expansive horizon.
This Is Just to Say…
I would love fall no matter where I lived, but my favorite season is particularly rich in sensory detail here in New Mexico, which inspires me to…wait for it…write! I slip on a cozy scarf (or a writing kerchief); make myself a cup of tea; drink in the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of my adopted home state; and I am transported into that blissful, often elusive state that creative writers try to capture when they put pen to paper/fingers to keyboard. There’s simply nothing like it.
What is fall like where you live? Do you find that it inspires your creativity? Drop us a comment here or on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!