The smell, the crispness, the “fashion,” the culture/traditions: apple cider, donuts, hay rides, scarves, wool hats, jumping in leaves, chopping wood, and all the incredible food! -Elizabeth G. Johnson
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I grow homesick for past family gatherings. The faces and voices and laughter of grandparents and aunts and uncles and father now passed. Play in barns and woods with cousins now grown. The scents of family recipes from a hot and crowded kitchen. The shouts of relatives in pajamas and jerseys watching college football in a cozy den. -Christopher Campany
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The smell of autumn, falling leaves, beautiful colors, wonderful walks in the woods. -Deborah Lowery
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Apples and wood smoke. -Vicki Harrington Franch
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Meeting all the people from around the world that come to experience our beautiful foliage. -April A. Lavoie
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The sound of crunching leaves under my pony's feet, no bugs, and the beautiful colors. -Missy Morann Rustemeyer
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Doom, gloom, and the coming darkness of winter. -Jason Henske
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Crisp, cool, clean air with a hint of wood-fire smoke and beautiful color everywhere. -Jean Conway
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I think of cozy sweaters, leaves crunching underfoot, and a coziness that wraps around me with the chill in the air and the bright colors against grayish blue skies. -Leah S. Klein
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When I was a boy: Making back-to-school brown paper bag textbook covers, picking big pumpkins (growing up on Long Island fall was the only season we went to a farm) and carving them and roasting the seeds and trying to eat the seeds (they were always too chewy), and the slow retreat indoors as the days shorten and warm blankets and television become a sleepy destination. -Patrick O'Connor
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Geese honking overhead, things baking, smells of wood burning, and wondering when the windows will have to be shut for the duration. -Laura Austan
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Eating all the different types of winter squash, sweet fall carrots, and baked potatoes! -Howard Prussack
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I always remember raking leaves into piles and then running and jumping into them, then the smell and feel of all those dry, musty sweet, orange and red leaves against my chilled skin. Afterwards, my father raked them into the streets, along with all our neighbors on 12th street, and set them on fire, filling the entire town with their sweet smoke. -Barry Adams
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I smell leaves burning - even if they're not. -Chris Connelly
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A new academic year. -Jane Cormuss
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Foliage, wood stoves, and fall vegetables roasting. -Carol Mayer
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Apples, picking apples! On a cool, bright, clear-skied day, walking through the tall grass of the orchard, we would look for the tree that had the most beautiful and low-hanging fruit. We would drop the basket under that tree, and the tallest person would gently bend down a branch so the kids could pick the apples. You had to watch out for the yellow jackets that were eating the fruit that had fallen on the ground. There's a hunkering down that happens as the days get shorter. Dinner is earlier each evening, and the cold weather calls for hot soups and stews. -Marilyn Buhlmann
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Falling in love in Vermont, after growing up in Arizona. -Nancy Clingan
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Autumn has been my favorite season for as long as I can remember, because it possesses a certain melancholy. The earth is dying again, slipping into its winter coma, though it's such a beautiful death. -Clara Rose Thornton
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It's also the best season to hike! It's beautiful outside the weather is cooler and the colors are amazing. Especially up in the White Mountains where you can meet thru hikers on the AT. And don't forget Hike for the Homeless today. -Robin Rieske
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Crisp mornings, fog in the valleys, emanating glow from the wood stove. -Molly Stoner
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It's a carryover from school days, I'm sure, but fall always excited me with the possibility of new beginnings, new classes and friends. The beautiful fall colors, cool days, crunch of leaves, and smell of smoke only added to that excitement. -Beverly Greer Langeveld
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It is a time of turning inward, preparing for the winter. -Michelle Simpson-Siegel
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Crisp, juicy apples. -Cathrine Daly
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Putney School Harvest Festival. Hands down. -Jessica Callahan Gelter
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Macoun apples, Oktoberfest beers, employing the Leaf Rule on the golf course. -Tom Bedell
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Geese in chevron flight, being sung by Tom Rush in the song “Urge for Going” and seen over my head daily! -Maggie Haigis
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Sweaters out from under the bed, ironing red maple leaves between two sheets of waxed paper to preserve them, drinking fresh warm apple cider, and baking apple pie (served with aged Vermont cheddar cheese). -Fran Lynggaard Hansen
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Chuckle, tourist cash. (Only reason I don't spend the entire time cursing them.) -Rick Hege
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Fiery mountaintops and rainbows of leaves, hot spiced apple cider, harvest, apples, roasted root veggies, pumpkin spice, firewood stacking, wood stoves, crackle and pop sounds, bonfires, gatherings, festivals, people and humans scurrying about in preparation for winter and my personal favorite: that incredible golden hour when the sun begins to rest into the mountains and the world is glowing in drippy warm golden light. Fall is the very best time of the year. I wish it remained forever. -Shannon Albritton
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Cashmere sweaters, hot apple cider with or without rum, crackle of leaves falling, winter feather comforter on the bed, soup, foliage on I-91 North, Guilford Welcome Center, full moon over Groton Lake. -Vivi Mannuzza