Every change of season brings with it the feeling of new beginnings and fresh starts. Every one, that is, except autumn. While winter brings coziness and snow, spring the rebirth of nature, and summer passion and relaxation, autumn always brings a sense of melancholy.

Maybe it’s because the beauty of autumn is predicated on fleetingness. The lovely colors last maybe a month before the plants go dormant, the fun of spooky season is over far too quickly, the days shorten so much you feel in a race to cram as much fun as you can in before it starts getting dark at 4, and you never succeed.

Whatever the reason, autumn is the season when the door closing feels so much more potent than the one being opened. But there’s a beauty and charm to that as well, making this the perfect time of year to enjoy the things where the sweet and the bitter are in perfect balance.