“Autumn Days” from Janice - On-line English Class With My Student

Delphine:

It’s so nice to read your journal, Taste of Autumn.  I am beginning to see that you are able to express freely with your own ingenuity and creativity in writing.  I am all for the writers’ true feelings themselves instead of others.  At least, you are on the right track.  I love it.  

To be quite frank with you, autumn is truly my best favorite season.  It marks the end of summer, the growing season and into winter when the cold tend to keep the people indoors.  It’s also the best holiday season - Thanksgiving when the family members, and friends all gather together for re-union to give thanks for their blessings.  It’s the occasion that always brings the elements of my childhood nostalgia - Lunar Chinese New Year.  I have been in America for 41 years since 1973.  I have transitioned myself from a 21-year-old graduate student to being a wife, mother and now a grandmother for the entire journey.  The mood of all these holiday festivities is a manifestation for harvest from nature’s summer growing and my own children’s independence.  Somehow, it's occasionally mixed with a certain degree of melancholy that linked to the imminent arrival of harsh winter and the lonely days in the empty nest. 

The hallmark of Autumn is the changing leave colors from green – spring and summer seasons - to the mixture of red, purple, orange and yellow and eventually fall off the trees.  I love the way you cite ‘autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower’ by your favorite philosopher, Albert Camus.  It cannot be anything better described than that.   Thanks.  

The taste of autumn reminds me of my own cooking, my children fighting for the piece of turkey drumsticks when my husband, the head of the house, was cutting at the Thanksgiving dinner table.  It’s one of the dates on the calendar that I most look forward to.  I have lots of good memories aside from the juggling of the homemade stuffing and whipping up the pumpkins batter dip for pies  - The lovely smiles of the cake batter on their faces.  

So as the weeks pass and weather turns windy and chilly, I begin to experience the bad hair day while I enjoy the colorful leaves flying around.  I could feel what autumn is like - it’s in the air.  I could also taste what autumn is like - it’s in my home-baked pumpkin bread. It’s in the kitchen.   Your sense of taste for autumn is a little different from mine. It’s truly yours.  I like it.