Fall in the Texas Hill Country

Fall is my absolute favorite season of the year. I adore the crispness in the air, the falling of the acorns, turning of the leaves, and the fact that everything is flavored with pumpkin. The place that I love visiting most during autumn is Marble Falls, a small town just thirty miles west of Austin in the Texas Hill Country.

Once the sultry heat subsides, the rolling landscape of green cedar becomes brown and the deer come out. Waking up early at my family’s country house just north of Marble Falls is the best. Looking out the windows to see if the deer are grazing is the first thing I do each morning. Watching them from the front or back porch with a cup of coffee is the wonderful start to my day. I’ve seen as many as fifteen of them casually enjoying breakfast, that is until a potential threat is spotted, and they gracefully sprint over the barbed wire fence into the safety of the ranch bush.

Very close to the house is Sweet Berry Farm. In the spring and summers, the farm is bursting with strawberries. Folks from near and far come to pick their own right off the vine. But in the fall, the farm is overflowing with a vast variety of pumpkins and gourds. There’s a corn maze, hay rides, and other family-friendly activities.

Just this weekend on my way into town for coffee, I stopped at the farm before it was even open. The skies were grey and the earth was damp from night showers. I walked around the empty farm for about ten minutes and snapped these shots. Later that Saturday morning, the parking lot was filled with families out to pick their own pumpkins.

I quite liked having the place all to myself.