A fall-flavored meme for the first of October (found via Kat):

When does fall begin for you? September, after Labor Day.

What is your favorite aspect of fall? The foliage. Cool nights. Warm sweaters and jeans.

What is your favorite fall memory? Not one specifically, but a series of them: Apple picking with Karen. The free kids’ apple bin at Bishop’s. Dancing at the hootenanny with ECN (junior year, it must have been). Thanksgiving morning with my folks. Trick or treating my sophomore year of college. Homecoming/Family Weekend/Harvest Fest at Conn — complete with the bee-filled apple dumplings. How bright the stars were from Harkness Green — particularly Orion over Palmer. Halloween cartoons. The ’86 World Series — when half the games were still played in the afternoon. Singing with Brian.

What do you like to drink in the fall? Hot cider. Tea.

What’s your favorite fall food? Apples. As cider. In pies and doughnuts. Reduced into sauce. With cinnamon. As afternoon snacks.

What is fall weather like where you live? In D.C., fall is just a more temperate version of summer. In the next week, crazed locals will break out their long wool coats and scarves and gloves, regardless of what temperature it actually is. (Daytime highs are still usually in the 70s and 80s through October.) Those of us who grew up elsewhere will sigh longingly over the thoughts of sweaters as we pull on sandals and capris until nearly Christmas.

What color is fall?You can always tell a New Englander, because our first thought of fall is the red of the maples. Then the orange of oaks. The yellow-gold of elms. The brown everything turns by Thanksgiving when you have to finish the raking.

What does fall smell like? Dried, decaying leaves. And if you don’t know that smell, there’s no way I can convey it to you. I fail equally at explaining the smell of snow the night before it falls.

Holiday shopping in fall: yes or no? I always start in the fall… and finish Christmas eve….

If you could go anywhere in the fall, where would you go? Home. Virginia is lovely and yellow in the fall. And Quebec turns on its heady charms along the St. Lawrence. But New England and autumn just … fit. There’s a maple tree in front of the chapel at Conn that turns a particular shade of fluorescent pink… And a stretch of Rte. 17 in Durham just along the lake that turns slightly earlier than all the other trees in the area and it just makes your heart smile to see it (and makes mine ache a bit to think about it).

What is your favorite fall sport? In high school, girls’ volleyball is a fall sport. Otherwise, it would be World Series baseball (preferably featuring the Mets).

Do you have a favorite fall chore? Back to school shopping? Auditioning new tv shows is also quite pleasant.

What is your least favorite thing about fall? How quickly on its heels Christmas arrives.

What is your favorite fall holiday? Halloween. No, Thanksgiving. No, Halloween. No….

What’s your favorite kind of pie? Apple crisp.

Which do you prefer, the Farm or the Fair? The fair has too many people. I’m definitely a farm gal.

Do you have a favorite fall book? I can’t think of one…

How about a favorite fall poem or quote? I’m not sure I know it well enough to call it a favorite, but I offer you this:

The Kitten and the Falling Leaves
   ~William Wordsworth

See the kitten on the wall, sporting with the leaves that fall,
Withered leaves — one — two –and three, from the lofty elder tree!
Through the calm and frosty air, of this morning bright and fair…
–But the kitten, how she starts; Crouches, stretches, paws, and darts!

First and one, and then its fellow, just as light and just as yellow;
There are many now — now one — now they stop and there are none;
What intenseness of desire, in her upward eye of fire!

With a tiger-leap half way, now she meets the coming prey,
Lets it go as fast, and then, has it in her power again:
Now she works with three or four, like an Indian Conjuror;
Quick as he in feats of art, far beyond in joy of heart.

Play along on your blog or in the comments if you’d like.