September Welcome

Now is a good time to start anew, plus a recipe for peanut butter popcorn

June, July and August: these three months seem to have flown by. And here I am in September, hanging perilously to the last vestiges of summer and already feeling a tiny bit of the fall slowdown. 

In my childhood in Belgium, September 1 was always the marker for the start of school. By then, the horse chestnut trees on our village square where I waited for the school bus were already laden with fruit, their leafy fronds yellowing. I was ready to go back to school with my school satchel full of new notebooks and new pens.

After the easy days of summer, spent biking or walking with friends on the narrow back roads and paths of our village or swimming at the local pool or cooking things up in our families’ kitchens, I was ready to tackle new subjects in school. And the school system required my full attention: I had classes in Classical Latin, Classical Greek, Dutch, French along with Geography, Chemistry, Physics, History, Physical Education and Home Economics.

To this day, I still feel a touch of excitement as September begins. I’m still that thirteen year old girl, waiting at the bus stop, wondering what new things the season will bring, waiting to use the new pens in her bag. As an adult, I see September as a new start, a time to review the work that I did through the summer when I sometimes bit off a little more than I could chew. Summer often pushes me to echo nature’s growth and go all out. As autumn comes around, it reminds me to focus and pare down and let go.

 This year, I’m setting a few goals for myself for the fall season, some that require a little more discipline, a little more looking inward. Just like each new school year brings unknowns along with the excitement, like any new start, I’m given a chance to begin again. It’s a good reminder that the first step is sometimes the hardest.  But beginning is everything. And who knows where it will go from there? It could be the start of something brilliant.

As the days grow shorter and the house windows close, as the leaves start their journey from green to yellow, red and brown, as the grasses dry and the pumpkins ripen, I’ll be assessing my own changes.

And just like the start of any new school year, I’ll have new things to study and learn, some harder than others. With September here,  I’m ready. Are you?

Here’s a recipe for peanut butter popcorn I often make in the fall and eat with fresh orchard apples.

Peanut Butter Popcorn

Pop enough popcorn to make 2 quarts. 

Cook to a rolling boil:

½ c. sugar 

½ c. honey

Remove from heat and add:

½ c. chunky peanut butter

½ t. vanilla

Pour over popcorn, stirring to coat. Eat and enjoy with a local orchard apple.