The Fall

While there aren't enough trees here for the leaves to be changing color, there is a definite feeling of autumn in the air. The wind blows (wind=fall, that's what the Santa Ana's taught me), the crispness is there. Best felt when walking through the kirkyards (graveyards).  There is quite a famous one close to me, Greyfriar's Kirkyard, final resting place of many a Edinburger (just joking.  There's not a name for the people of Edinburgh. They're just Scottish).  There are graves as old as 1580, and the place is definitely haunted.  In fact, as I was walking through, I overheard a ghost tour group leader say that the original kirkyard was 15ft lower than today, and the accumulation of over 5000 80,000!!!! bodies made the elevation artificially rise.  Gross. But its really cool too.  Walking along those paths though, and you can feel the changing of the season.  The crunchy leaves skitter across the pathway and your feet.  There is a funny barely-audible howling that is always present in the old town section, the way the wind is forced through the narrow streets; it seems to pick up the laments of the ancient cobblestones and give a voice to them.
  But the arrival of fall is met by my frustration with all the food that I'm going to miss.  Acorn Squashes dressed in butter and spices, roasted root vegetables (parsnips! and sweet potatoes especially), whole roasted chickens that give you enough meat for another meal, baked fish with a creamy risotto on the side, apple cobbler, apple pie, apple cider, fresh apples that snap with tartness, crusty bread dipped into soup, spiced lamb kebabs with a cool yoghurt sauce (that's how they spell it here), rice pilaf, pumpkin enchiladas, and again, apple crisp, this time served with vanilla bean ice cream and a hot tea after.  That's what I would eat if I could.  And some candy corn, because even though they really aren't that tasty, I know someone who is obsessed with them...

Here's what I'm eating instead.  But I still love my tomato soup.  It was a good lunch.

Also, I made some salsa to educate my poor friends about the delicious combination of tomatoes and peppers.  Voila. Don't worry: I wasn't cooking it--I just didn't have a bowl big enough.