Give me seven things you associate with October. You don’t have to explain them, but it’s more fun for readers if you do. from CafeWriting

1. Fallen leaves, strewn across the ground. I shuffle through them, or happily crunch them with my sneakered feet, while the dogs roll in them, noses all a-quiver. Ah, the smell of mulch in the morning.
2. Soups and stews, all simmering, filling the house with spicy warmth, living on the stove where one can sneak a bowl at odd hours, filling the stomach and the soul with warmth.
3. Crisp evenings, with woodsmoke in the distance and crystalline stars glittering in the heavens.
4. Chilly, mist-softened mornings that turn the grass a greener shade and allow your breath to form silly spirals when you speak into the air
5. Witches, ghosts, and goblins scampering down the street, accompanied by adults looking wistful for the days when they were the ones in costumes, and the chocolate didn’t have to be x-rayed before you could eat it.
6. Rain-slicked streets lit by lamplight, cars coming home in full darkness, glowing windows dotting the neighborhood.
7. Apples everywhere, red and green and yellow, like stoplights. Pressed into cider, baked into pies, stewed into sauce or boiled into jam – sweet, tart, crisp and redolent of fall.