Hey Boy. It's Peak Fall. Let's go pick apples and mull some cider

Hey boy,

It’s peak fall.

Let’s put on our flannels over some layers and walk out among the rust colored leaves. We don’t have to talk a lot because the beauty of the place is going to do the talking on its own. But if you want to, we can talk about our parents or Thanksgiving plans or whatever. I’ll listen. But wait, is that the sound of a pileated woodpecker? Did you hear that? It's the sound of peak fall.

Hey boy,

It’s peak fall.

Do you play a wind instrument? I’m putting together a band called wood smoke and winter, but I think we’re going to practice this fall and maybe hole up in a cabin come winter and sing about all the things we’ve lost. Did you lose something sometime? Maybe your childhood or a piece of yourself? Let's go sing about it and write song lyrics.

Hey boy,

It’s peak fall

We can put on our scarves and sneak by Starbucks to get a pumpkin spice latte. Even though neither one of us really likes the synthetic taste. It’s a right of passage, pouring our drink out over the crumpled yellow leaves on the street two blocks from my house.Afterwards, we can walk by trees and look at bits of deep blue sky between barren branches. It's peak fall.

 

Hey boy,

It’s peak fall.

Let’s go apple picking somewhere out in the country, with green rolling hills, and homemade pies and apple cider doughnuts. It’s so easy to pick a lot of apples very quickly, but I know you like to stick around and try and get as many non-conventional varieties as possible. We can use one of those apple pickers or maybe just climb the trees like when we were children.Later, we can make some pies and apple crisps and lie around and talk about our favorite romantic movies.

 

 

Hey boy,

It’s peak fall.

We can just stay in and read our books today underneath our blankets. Because it’s nice to finally be in a season where it’s okay to get underneath blankets and just be cozy, and we can talk about the blanket forts we built as children, or just watch light cloak the trees. And maybe we can read out loud to each other when we get to good parts and use strange voices for different characters.

 

Hey boy,

It’s peak fall.

Let’s go for a hike somewhere with a view. We can hear the leaves crunch beneath our feet and feel the warmth of the sun as it gets through the trees. It’ll take a while for us to get warm, when we can only see our breath, but in the meantime we can keep our hands in our pockets and mumble things to one another until we feel warm. Maybe we'll hike up to a waterfall and listen to it patter down on the rocks and we'll tell each other about our grandmothers.

Hey boy,

It’s peak fall.

Why don’t you come over and do some baking? I have two aprons. We can just keep the heat low and warm ourselves by the oven while the pumpkin muffins are cooking. It’s okay to stand close to the oven. It’ll keep us warm, and we can listen to Bon Iver and talk about how good baked goods smell. And maybe later we can move into the living room and have a piece of something pumpkiny and laugh for a while.

Hey boy,

It’s peak fall. 

Let’s go for a drive just to see the foliage. We can look at a map to see just how far we should go. On the way, we can roll down the windows and smell the leaves decay. And when we arrive we can marvel over the shades of yellow and orange and red. And on the way back, it'll be too cold to roll the windows down, but we'll do it anyway because we're wearing enough layers that no cold can touch us.

Hey boy, 

It’s peak fall. 

Let’s head out to a pumpkin patch and find something good. Later, we’ll come back and carve out some great jack-o-lantern faces and maybe roast some pumpkin seeds and wait for the cider to mull and nap in the afternoon, our faces, for once, not creased by worry.

Hey boy,

It’s peak fall. 

We can dress up in scary costumes and go to one of those parties where all of our friends are drinking beer and handing out candy to little kids. And we can sit and talk about how we both dressed up as ninjas while we drink craft pumpkin ales and take pictures beneath the fake spider webs. Or maybe we can just go out to some colonial spot where George Washington took a bath and maybe talk about our shared love of American history. It's peak fall.