LexTalk

When orange starts showing up, I know fall is here.

There’s something about the color orange that instantly makes my brain think: fall is here.

Maybe it’s because orange seems to be everywhere this time of year.

Pumpkins on porches. Leaves changing colors. Warm candles glowing inside the house. Halloween decorations slowly making their way out of storage.

It’s funny because orange isn’t necessarily a color I surround myself with year-round. But the second fall arrives?

Give me all of it.

Burnt orange. Pumpkin orange. Rust. Amber. Those beautiful shades of red, yellow and orange that make the trees look like they’re glowing when the sunlight hits them.

For Day 2 of my October Photo + Writing Challenge, the photo prompt was simply “Something Orange.”

My immediate thought was a pumpkin.

There was just one small problem.

The Squirrels Had Other Plans

We actually did have pumpkins outside.

Notice the past tense.

The squirrels in our neighborhood apparently saw our fall decorations and thought we had kindly provided them with an all-you-can-eat seasonal buffet.

So… those pumpkins weren’t exactly available for today’s photo.

Instead, I started looking around the house for something orange, and my eyes landed on this little pumpkin candle in my kitchen.

And honestly, it was perfect.

Sitting beside the vase filled with orange, yellow and red fall leaves, it captured exactly what I love about this time of year.

It wasn’t some elaborate fall scene.

It was just a little corner of my kitchen.

But that’s kind of the point of this challenge.

Finding Fall in the Ordinary

When I decided to do this 31-day photo and writing challenge, I wanted it to encourage me to notice things I might normally walk right past.

Today, that was a little orange pumpkin candle.

Tomorrow, it might be something completely different.

There’s something comforting about decorating for the seasons and watching your home slowly change with them. Little things that normally seem ordinary suddenly feel special.

A pumpkin candle on the stove.

A vase filled with fall leaves.

The first chilly morning.

A cozy blanket coming back out.

The smell of cinnamon.

Even a half-eaten pumpkin sitting outside because apparently the neighborhood squirrels are celebrating fall too.

Those tiny things are what make a season feel like a season to me.

Orange Feels Like October

If I had to give October a color, there really wouldn’t be any competition.

It would be orange.

It’s warm without feeling like summer.

It’s bright without feeling like spring.

It reminds me of changing leaves, glowing sunsets, pumpkin patches, Halloween nights, candlelight and all those cozy little moments that make fall feel almost magical.

And maybe that’s why this simple photo ended up meaning more to me than I expected.

I wasn’t photographing anything extraordinary.

I was photographing something that made an ordinary corner of my home feel like October.

And perhaps that’s what I’m starting to love most about this challenge.

It reminds me that sometimes you don’t have to go looking very far for something worth noticing.