According to at least some meteorologists, we are in for a colder than usual autumn this year. Waking up to temps in the high thirties and low forties makes that easy to believe. Even as I sit here writing this, it’s a little after one o’clock and it’s sixty two degrees outside. The temperature isn’t that much warmer at sixty five degrees here in the house. I’m wearing jeans and a flannel shirt and I’m still cold!
Nature works on its own schedule so I know it’s not autumn just yet, but it’s not far off. If you’re paying attention and tuned into the natural world around us, there’s a feeling you get that country singer Clint Black describes so well in his song titled, appropriately enough, “Change In The Air.”
While on my morning walks I’m seeing the signs that Nature is getting ready for the change as well. The milkweek is yellowing and the seed pods formed. The trees everywhere are fading, losing their summertime, almost uniform emerald green color. It seems kind of early to me. And soon they’ll begin to stand out as individuals as they put on a variety of hues like ladies arriving to the ball in their finest gowns. Some, like the chestnut tree, have already been and gone, their branches more bare and leaves fallen. There, the squirrels collect this years harvest of nuts, “buckeyes” as some still call them, to store away for winter. Along the roadsides and fields, the regal color of purple loosestrife, a beautiful, yet invasive species, is beginning to give way to goldenrod as it lives up to it’s own name. The signs of summer’s end are everywhere, if you know where to look and how to see.
The days getting noticeably shorter. A week or so ago we had our last sunset after 8 o’clock and soon it’ll be dark even sooner. I know I’m in the minority when I say this, but I honestly don’t mind the shorter days, at least not at first. Just as we’ve been busy all summer, so too has nature all around us, preparing for winter. I’ve long thought of the shorter days as Nature’s way of telling us it’s time to slow down, take a break, and rest just as many other species who share this part of the planet are doing. Each evening the daylight diminishes just a little, we boost the early darkness some with the end of daylight savings time, with increased darkness until December 21st. After that things brighten a little more gradually, but in the meantime I don’t mind it so much. Time goes by too fast anymore, it’s good to slow down.
And this summer certainly seemed to fly by, didn’t it?
I am constantly amazed at how quickly time passes as I get older and I don’t understand why. I wonder if there is a scientific reason for this.
I am always happy when these lovely old “ber” months start. I love the changes in nature and how even the air itself has a different, invigorating scent. My only complaint is the changing of the clocks. I truly wish we would just go to Standard Daylight time. This year I left one of our clocks unchanged and, honestly, there was not that much noticeable day light savings.
I’m with you Ann. I wish daylight savings would end.
I love this time of year and also dreaded it because the days become so long, gloomy, cold and dark. But that’s common in the twin tiers.
I love that I can wake up to sunshine every day mostly now. But it does get hot. I am in the pools here until well into December.
Time absolutely flies as we get older. I ask myself all the time “how the hell is it 3:00 already?!!!” I hardly did anything 🤣🤣🤣
When I was working, I was up at 5:00 and never stopped until 11:00pm.
That being said, take time to be grateful, help where you can, enjoy every little moment and look at things like you did when you were a kid. There’s such a beautiful, amazing world out there! Every little insect, flower, animal is amazing. Take it all in.
Love & miss you my friend ❤️