Well hello all and welcome the lovely month of October!

I cannot express enough how excited I am that autumn is flourishing right now, showing off its reds, oranges and yellows for the entire town to witness. Autumn is my FAVORITE season….which works out nicely being in New Paltz since it has SO MANY events going on during this time of year. There’s apple picking, pumpkin picking, carving or painting pumpkins, baking, Halloween costumes, Headless Horseman hay ride and haunted house (a big deal here at New Paltz), not to mention Sleepy Hallow not being too far of a drive. Many a thing to do here this time of year!

Not only are the leaves the colors of a sunrise, but they are crispy and scattered all over campus. I’ll let you in on a little, guilty pleasure I have: I truly relish in stepping on as many crunchy leaves as I can find. I actually scope out for a pile of these leaves on campus. That crackling sound always reminds me of home. Once the school season started, Carmine the bus driver would drop me and my brother off at the end of our court, where we’d race to our driveway. Kyle would usually win, because he’s just a gazelle like that. I wouldn’t care though (usually) as long as I was able to find a good pile of super crunchy leaves and stomp-the-heck-outta-them. Ah memories.

I took this picture right outside of the Humanities building! These are good leaves to crunch, lemme tell ya!

Here are some lovely pictures around campus that I’ve been taking. I told you I marvel the spectacle of autumn, especially here at New Paltz!

Here’s right outside Capen Hall.

I took this on my way to Hasbrouck Dining Hall today.

Some more trees outside Capen Hall. Not all the trees are turning just yet.

You bet I’m gonna gush some more about Autumn. I can’t wait to go apple picking and stuff when my fam comes up to visit. I’m with NPblogger Jessie on this one….New Paltz is the place to go and celebrate the changing of this season.

What is this COTA business, you ask? Ah, well it’s Celebration of the Arts that took place here at New Paltz’s Hasbrouck Park on Sunday September 28th. I know that was a little while ago, but I took some video footage and took some snapshots, so I thought I’d tell ya a little about it. Wow, this took place when we had that very long weekend! September seems so long ago! Well here’s the website that you could get a more in-depth view of what went on there!

http://www.celebrationofthearts.net/COTA.html

There were all kinds of artists, from: emerging, working, closet, and those taking a chance by bending convention. To give you an idea, there were over 100 artists showcasing and selling their artwork, performances through out the day, a local writers’ tent for signings and book sales, children events, an arts networking tent, free professional development seminars for artists, habitats for artists installations, and foood.

Here’s some videos of the performances I watched!

A New Paltz alum, Cuttz, performing at COTA.

So as I mentioned before, there were a lot of beautiful booths where artists were selling their work. We didn’t buy anything (alas the life of the poor college student) but my friends and I looked around! Check it out! Enjoy and till next time stay smiley!

The event took place right behind the Van Den Burg Hall, which houses our nursing and business programs. THAT’S how close this event was to campus.

Children were running all around, especially on this playground, despite the misty weather and the mud.

Kids made tambourines out of paper plates and decorated themselves!