The Basic Bitch Fall Checklist

Last weekend was really one for the basic bitch record books. In addition to carving pumpkins with Kelsie on Saturday, I legitimately won Basic Bitch Bingo on Sunday morning: 

Let's play, shall we? 

Puffer vest: check

Flannel plaid buttondown: check

J.Crew from head to toe: check

Leggings: check

Pumpkin spice latte: check

Photo of my feet in leaves: check

All I need are riding boots and a blanket scarf and I'm golden. (If you need a laugh, go search the #basicbitch hashtag on Instagram...there are a shocking number of photos that look just like this one. Only less picturesque, if I may say so myself.)

I was grumpy on Sunday morning after a night of restless sleep and an early-morning trip to the office, so I took the long way home and stopped for a latte on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. On my way up, I drove down Summit Avenue, famously one of the prettiest streets in Minnesota, and couldn't help but park the car and go on a little ramble. Look at those leaves! 

I've realized this fall that I am a fiend for sugar maples...the way their leaves turn the whole spectrum of yellow into orange, before settling into that searing red color. The stretch of Summit I parked and walked on was all sugar maples, up and down both sides of the street and so old that their branches nearly converged overhead. It was, in a word, sublime. 

I mean, look at that. I ended up walking to the Cathedral and popping in for Mass...which, combined with the caffeine and the walk, totally lifted my curmudgeonly mood and set me up for an absolutely lovely day. 

Since I am the most basic of basic bitches, though, I've been taking #omgfallleaves photos all fall...Sunday was just the pinnacle of my basic. More below: 

More Cathedral views on my walk back to my car from work...much earlier in the season. What are these little yellow-leaf trees? I love them inordinately. 

The perfect fall morning at Lake Harriet

More yellow trees in St. Paul

An earlier pass down Summit Avenue - what's not to love about blue-sky autumn days? 

Heading in late to work after a board meeting - the sugar maples outside the building are stunningly beautiful. 

I mean, LOOK. The sheer variegation on those leaves alone is enough to convert me into one of those October-loving, #itsfallyall basic ladies. 

And my personal fave: walking home from a mid-October Mass through Loring Park, I chanced to look up and this beauty caught my eye. Is there anything more quintessentially "fall in Minnesota" than that blue sky and that RED tree? It's affirming over and over again why I live here, and love this season so much. 

And we end with more basic feet in leaves photos. Happy fall, y'all, enjoy it while you can because pretty soon those feet in leaves will be more like "feet in snowdrifts!"