Finally I could hike for miles through the nearby woods or go for a run through our neighborhood without feeling instantly overheated or spent. And the air! For someone like me who has a low tolerance for heat and humidity, the October air is a welcome respite from the oppressive heat of the summer: crisp and cool and refreshing.

In between the gray, rainy days, which seem to only intensify the colors of the fall foliage, there are picture-perfect days where the sky is impossibly blue and the sun casts golden shadows through the changing leaves onto the ground below. The trees begin their glorious multicolored metamorphosis as their leaves change from green to crimson and copper and gold before eventually covering the earth in a magical autumnal-hued carpet. If there is anything else as magnificent as October in New England, well, I’ve yet to see it. Surrounded by acres of trees and miles of quiet, our new neighborhood welcomed us with a spectacular show that year, and it has continued to do so every October since. It was 16 years ago this month that we moved from our condo in the quaint (yet crowded) town of Salem, Massachusetts (aka Halloween Town, USA, where October is a whole other experience), to our current home in rural New Hampshire. I’m pretty sure it was our first October in New Hampshire that made me a bona fide New Englander, one who would never want to leave. “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

Blender samples plate cup and donut