My Favourite Things: Monday

It's a blustery, overcast kind of morning... the sun is making a valiant effort to burn though the cloud cover, creating some captivating scenery of fire-rimmed storm clouds.  The air is cool and crisp, fragrant with freshly fallen rain and the promise of more.

Summer is gone, and autumn is here.  I love this time of year.  As much as I love spring and the departure of winter, fall is truly my favourite time of year.  And with fall comes one of my favourite things...

All things pumpkin...

This morning my route to work will pass by a Starbucks which means that I can get my yearly splurge of a pumpkin spice latte.  I can't regularly justify spending $84 on a cup of coffee, but for a pumpkin spice latte to kick off this wonderful season, I make an exception.

This weekend I baked a pumpkin spice loaf to have with coffee on Sunday; I love how pumpkin used in baking adds such beautiful colour and texture. And the flavour promises what everyone looks for in comfort food: satisfying, delicious, and with a built in warmth that takes the edge of cool mornings and evenings.

I checked my cupboards this morning to see whether I had what I needed to whip up some of these amazing muffins: Pumpkin Bran Muffins. My favourite thing about this recipe is that it keeps in the fridge so you can have fresh muffins in the morning without the fuss of actually mixing the batter.

I think tonight I'll put out my fall wreath.  No pumpkins on that one, though.  Maybe I need to remedy that?

What about you? What's your favourite thing about autumn?