Pumpkin spice is everywhere!

By Lethbridge Herald on September 27, 2024.

LEAVE IT TO BEEBER
Al Beeber – Managing Editor

You wouldn’t know it by the temperatures earlier this week but autumn is upon us. Yes, we finally officially said goodbye to summer last weekend even though that was hard to believe with the heat we’ve had.

But the reminders that autumn is here are everywhere. The most obvious, of course, is the return of pumpkin spice everything except perhaps shampoo and deodorant. Yet.

When that flavour – love it or gag on it – returns to coffee, cake mixes, Scentsy, cookies, you name it, autumn is here. And we’re stuck with it until suddenly it’s peppermint latte season which should start in about three weeks given how much earlier Christmas season begins dominating store shelves nowadays.

 When I lived on the Minnesota border, even Canadian stores didn’t start promoting Christmas until American Thanksgiving had passed in early November. That seems the appropriate time – not in October or earlier.

Right now we’re still in leaf bag season at local hardware stores – no sign yet from what I’ve seen of outdoor festive lights or fake Christmas trees taking up floor space. 

And pumpkin spice-fest is everywhere.

If you have been in stores, you may have noticed. Despite a report I read that the appeal is starting to wear off, I’m finding that hard to believe.

Pretty soon, someone is going to make the poor decision to copy Oreo and make pumpkin spice cola if it hasn’t already happened. The Oreo Coke stuff is bad enough. Remember soaking gingersnaps and other cookies in milk? Do it with Oreos and Coke and you’re not going to have those warm fuzzies except maybe ejecting them into a toilet bowl.

 But where there are people willing to spend money on anything new or novel, some company is going to eventually can a bunch of pumpkin spice pop – be it cola, or another flavour. Can you imagine pumpkin spice ginger ale? Just what you need to feel better – bring up the bad stuff with the pumpkin taste and let the ginger do its magic afterward. If you haven’t suffered a fatal heart attack or stroke from the heaving.

And I can’t wait to see a commercial for pumpkin spice sauced pizza. Or pumpkin spice stuffing for the Thanksgiving turkey. Mmmmm, num num. Blechh.

But thankfully pumpkin spice is the worst part of this season when leaves start turning colour and we can see glorious displays of different hues on our streets and in the river valley. 

Autumn is a beautiful season – even if we do have a killing frost for a night or two or the odd unexpected dump of snow. The shoulder season seems to be a soft, gentle season – except for the flu and colds that spread like wildfire on a drought-stricken prairie. 

But maybe there’s a pumpkin spice cure for that: how about pumpkin spice Buckley’s! If you thought it tasted bad before. . . and for stomach aches, how about pumpkin spice Pepto-Bismol with a little orangy colour to coat the innards instead of fluorescent pink?

One part of fall that’s a bit of a downer for me is yard cleanup which every year is a time-consuming, labourious task I usually take a week of vacation time to do. With that not an option this year, I’ve begun tackling the yard in sections which is easier on the aging body. And I’m not doing those sections all in one day, I’m taking my time to carefully chop, rake and load up those yard bags for trips to the recycling centre. And I’m not making the mistake of renting an electric trimmer after a misadventure with a leg two years ago.

While there is a race to beat winter, a person should have several weeks left without having to charge up the snowblower batteries or do maintenance on gas versions.

And with leaves barely beginning to turn, never mind drop gently to the ground, it’s a little premature to think everything can be cleaned up in a couple of weeks unless we suddenly get a decent cold snap which would surely cause grief for those still selling at the farmers market or just harvesting for their own use.

I’m hoping we do get some traditional fall weather – even briefly – to encourage those leaves to fall before the city organics centres close for the season. On more than one year, I’ve had to make multiple Saturday runs to the dump with the truck bed loaded full of bagged leaves because of late autumns, filling those bags after a snowfall which isn’t a whole lot of fun.

We’ve  already seen the reality of the changing season with later sunrises and earlier sunsets. Soon the regulars at city dog parks will be bringing headlamps and LED collars for the dogs while perhaps huddling together, backs against the wind with coffee in hand so their animals can do some much needed socializing.

We have good crews at Riverstone – a morning group – and one which comes between 5 and 6 p.m. nightly, who along with their animals all get along superbly well. 

These groups have become close-knit at the park and their devotion to their four-legged friends speaks volumes about them as human beings. 

Being a super early riser even on weekends, hitting the ground running to get the shrubs cleaned up, the rose bushes trimmed, vines cut is a huge priority for me but it’s a bit inconvenient doing it in the dark, especially with a ladder involved. 

So the diminishing amount of daylight is a bit problematic.

 But it’s still better than the dreaded smell and flavour of pumpkin spice.