Our fantastic fall weather here in Maine has continued with warmish, sunny days and cool nights. Perfect sleeping weather and enough daylight to still stay outside in the afternoon. THAT will change this weekend when we fall back an hour for daylight savings time.

I enjoyed a mid-afternoon tea outside on the side deck with my annual pumpkin muffins (see recipe below). I added mini chocolate chips and walnuts to the dough and they came out great! So moist!

A chai tea filled my autumn mug and complimented the spice mix in the muffins. A wee pumpkin and some of the fallen leaves rounded out the simple gathering.

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The smells of fall with the dried leaves always takes me back to my childhood in NY when the kids in our neighborhood would rake their leaves into piles and jump into them. Everyone had leaves in their yards because we had a lovely, tree-lined street back then. Some years when we were feeling REALLY ambitious, one house would be designated as THE house and we’d rake and move leaves from other lawns over to that one house and the leaf pile would be MASSIVE! We’d take turns jumping into the pile from atop a picnic table. Not dangerous at all!

At our house we used to rake the leaves into a maze and play freeze tag or other fun running games. Ah! Those were the days. We need to jump into the leaves more as adults.

November, and stick season, is right around the corner. Stay cozy!

Cheers!

2-Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins

SOURCE: Spark People Recipes

Ingredients:

• 1 (15.25 oz.) Box Dunkin Hines Spiced Cake Mix

• 1 (15 oz.) can pure pumpkin

Directions:

Mix the pumpkin and the spice cake mix powder together and drop by heaping tablespoons (I used an ice cream scoop) into greased muffin cups. Bake at 350ºF for 18-22 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Makes 1 dozen.

TIP: Mix in 1/2 cup raisins or chopped nuts if desired.