We’ve made it full circle. This will be the last post in this series. You’ve witnessed an entire year in Alaska.

Even though it’s only been a few weeks since the last post, it’s now full on autumn. A few of my flowers are hanging on, the garden doesn’t get much attention anymore, and we wander out every few days to pick what’s left to harvest. Snow is starting to drape the mountain tops and our furry friend is packing on his winter coat.

Most people have specific things they look forward to in the upcoming seasons. Winter of course is home to Christmas but when everything is snow covered here, it’s breathtaking. Spring brings fresh blooms and the start of the midnight sun, and summer is all about that fresh cut grass smell for me.

I easily succumb to the pumpkin trend that fall brings, and gets all the ladies in a tizzy. But even as a little girl, I always looked forward to fall. Growing up we didn’t celebrate holidays due to religious beliefs. Which wasn’t all that bad, but meant you got left out a lot of projects and events. The one thing I did get to be a part of was the celebration of fall. The field trip to the farm where I searched for the most massive pumpkin I could get my hands on, and the fresh apple cider. I remember every detail of walking home every year with this ginormous pumpkin in my arms. My mom would scrape it out and roast the seeds, and use the rest of the pumpkin for the absolute best cookies. Our house always smelled so incredible at that time of the year. We had fruit trees in our yard, so my mom spent many days making jams, fruit leather, apple butter and the dehydrator was going non stop with peaches and pears.

One of my chores was raking leaves and even though they inevitably were wet and gross, I would still rake my heart out and jump in the piles right before we had to bag them up. For as dirty as they were, they simply smelled so good.

So even though I love fall for it’s colors and sweater wearing, good smelling candles and delicious pies, it’s a season that is dear to my heart for it’s wonderful memories. Memories I hope will take on new meaning as I relive them with children of my own. And even though this season involves celebrations for my kids that I didn’t have myself, I hope that at the end of it all, they still come to love and cherish those simple and small details like the smell of freshly baked pumpkin cookies from that giant pumpkin they lugged home.