Dear Fall...

It is with regret that I must inform you, fall, or autumn, as you are sometimes called, that after a long and passionate relationship I am breaking up with you.

Yes, I'm sure it comes as a shock. I was definitely one of your biggest fans. Remember all those pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin scones from the various Starbucks in Frederick, almost every morning after I dropped the girls at preschool? And all those decorative pumpkins and gourds that I purchased each year to pile high on every fireplace mantle and flat surface large enough to hold them. I know, I know....but sorry, I'm just truly over you.

I blame Facebook for some of it. Since August each morning's news feed has displayed some traditional food item now available in pumpkin spice flavor, and it just started to get to me. Hey, I'm all for pumpkin bread and flavored coffees and all, but pumpkin pie spice just really doesn't belong in every single thing we eat. Seriously, it just doesn't. It's getting creepy.

Also, after living in Key West for a bit over five years now, I'm just not into celebrating a season we don't really have here. Early fall is our rainy season, a time for storm tracking and hurricane parties. And later fall, after Halloween and Fantasy Fest are over, is the beginning of our best weather of the year. Warm days, cool nights, windows open. By Thanksgiving I'm sure we will have a few jack be littles and gourds on the table. By then I'll be ready. It will finally be fall here on the island by then.

It seems like fall has gotten so commercial. We are bombarded with Halloween craft ideas and recipes for a perfect pumpkin patch picnic while the kids are still in the pool and people are at the beach on summer vacation. None of us really need to buy more stuff, do we? Just go outside and enjoy the changes. And if you don't buy a bunch of fall stuff, you won't have to buy those black and orange bins at Target to store it all in. I've got a stack of them in a house in Frederick, filled to the brim with the decorations of autumns past.

So, thank you, fall, or autumn, for the many, many years of cinnamon-scented memories, piles of perfect pumpkins, and wreaths of orange leaves. It's not you. It's me. I'm truly an island girl now.