Hear the Leaves Crunch

Try to step only on leaves down the sidewalk :D hop from one to another and hear the crunch crunch crunch as you go. This time of year you probably won't even have to hop ^.^ If you can find a spot where they've really piled up, wade through them, jump about on them, hear the crunching and rustling noises and smell that earthy leafy brown autumn smell! Pick some up and throw them in the air, give them one more flight! Watch them float to the ground.

When you see one that catches your eye, with brilliant colours, or a rainbow effect, or a pretty pattern of veins, pick it up, carry it with you, twirl it between your fingers, examine it closely, put it in your button hole, or your hair, tape it up somewhere when you get home. Try and find out what kind of tree it came from. Or go on a leaf-hunt for different kinds and make yourself a little collection. If they're not already too dry you can press them in a book between a couple kleenxes so that they won't curl up as they dry. Look for the teeeeeniest one you can find, and the Biggest one you can find. Show them to your friends. Notice if they're sticky, or smooth, or fuzzy on the back side. Lay them under a paper and colour over them with a soft pencil or crayon to see the pattern of the veins.

Or you can gather a bunch and make yourself an autumn lei! You can use your fingernail or a small knife to make slits in the leaf-stems. Thread the next stem through the hole, and then slit it, thread another one through and slit it, etc. You can take a string or perhaps a long tough blade of grass and tie the last stem to the stem of the first and voila! you've got a festive lei or a fairy crown.

Collect interesting seed pods and sticks too. Fill your pockets with bits of nature ^.^ You might find the things you need to make little stick fairies, or you might find an acorn hat for a doll or beenie-baby.

Find a nice stick, and tie or tape a bunch of leaves to it, stick it in a vace or prop it up somehow, and have your own little autumn tree indoors. I'm sure your little fairy or animal friends would love to sit under it ^.^

There is an abundance of beauty and joy to be found in the autumn leaves, don't pass them by! Don't worry about what others may think, don't worry about it seeming childish, for it is just this sort of thing that is truely living. Take notice of this beautifull earth you live on, appreicate it, accept the joy it offers you. Keep hold of the happiness and free spirit of childhood. Make your inner child smile, and perhaps you will bring a smile to others as well.