Leaping into Leaves

Today as I was driving to school, I found myself looking out my window at the beautiful foliage on the trees. It is officially fall. Although the calendar said "First day of Autumn" about a month ago, I only began to feel its effects this week. It's getting colder, the days are getting shorter, and the smell of fall finally hits me when I walk out the door. I've always said they should bottle that smell up and it would be available all the time, however when I put my nose up to the "autumn leaves" Yankee Candle the other day, I told my mom, "this doesn't smell like leaves at all!" But then it occurred to me, that leaves don't really have a smell- they're dead. They smell more like dirt than anything else.
When I relayed this observation to my mother, she said they do smell like dirt, but that is a comfort to me. Living in such a rural area all my life, driving through the "fresh country air!" (manure), playing outside, and yard work were familiar pastimes that all happened quite often. The most comforting smells to me are of nature: the smell of flowers in the springtime, the smell of burning wood in the winter, the smell of trees and campfires in the fall, and the smell of mushrooms and cow manure in the summer. Although most people would consider these to be undesirable smells (or stenches), I find comfort in them.
As a child, I only remember raking leaves into a pile and then jumping into that pile one time. It actually hurt quite a bit. I learned that day that the leaves, however high you pile them, are not very cushiony. To make a long story short, I ended up with a bruised tush, and had to rake the leaves up again anyway.
When I saw all the beautiful changing colors on the way to school, I decided to take pictures of them while I still can, so tomorrow I will give myself extra time and go on a photo-taking excursion.