I was up in north eastern Vermont this weekend and something peculiar was in the air. It took me until Sunday morning, watching the mist come off the lake, to finally figure out what was up. It was AUTUMN in the air.
The colors are all ready changing on the white Birch and chestnut trees. A few Maples are geering up and the crisp fresh air could not have felt better on my lungs.
I live in southern Vermont, and work in Boston. So 4 days in the city, 2 1/2 in VT. We have a camp (cabin) on a lake in the Northeast Kingdom and we were up there this weekend for what I consider the best of the year. Our camp is not winterized but after this weekend we make make some changes.
So who’s psyched for Autumn? Who’s ready for pumpkins, hot apple cider, apple pie, scarecrows, fleeces and the like? I hope I’m not alone with liking the onset of autumn…
Autumn in New Mexico is very different from the autumns I remember in NY State and New England, and I do miss the Northeast. This is my second year out west, and I know I will feel nostalgic for the aroma of fallen leaves (even though I don’t miss raking the damn things!)
Still, Autumn has been in the air for a week or so now. The days are getting shorter, the nights are chilly. We had the first fire in our kiva. The wonderful smell of roasting green chiles signals the fall season here in La Tierra Encantada. I have noticed that the cottonwoods are starting to turn, and several days ago I could see snow on Mt. Taylor’s peaks. I am watching for the aspens to turn golden in the high valleys of the Sandias outside my front windows.
Sometime next month I will see the last of the lizards and hummingbirds, who I won’t welcome again until next spring.
Time to lay in a store of juniper and piñon for the winter.
Yes, autumn is here, and I am looking forward to it just as I always have, Autumn is exciting.
I’ve started a couple of threads on this subject, and hardly anyone replied But I have to agree with you, I don’t look forward to any season like I look forward to autumn.
The maple tree in my front yard is losing its leaves, the redbud tree is already bare, and the weather is starting to get soggy and cool. I can taste fresh popcorn and apple cider on the breeze And I went to a shop the other day that carried huge rugs made from Apalca wool, and I could just imagine curling up on one of those in front of the fire with some mulled wine…
We’re going to be looking for a rick of wood soon!
Spooky - very nice! very nice description. I can see it quite clearly in my mind. Plus, I’ve spent a fair amount of time out there and have seen much of what you describe!
I love it! The extra added bonus this year? I’m getting married in the middle of October.
Here in South Carolina, we’re still in the dog days of summer.
But I can’t wait until the weather starts to cool. Then, there’s that first morning where you wake up after sleeping with the windows open all night and it’s chilly and you crawl back under the blankets and settle in and get warm and smell the crisp air and listen to the leaves rustle in the breeze. I am usually late to work that day… makes me very… “frisky!”
It’s going to be below 90 for the rest of the week; the radio DJ who announced the weather was ecstatic about “the autumn weather.” Damn, Texas.
Autumn makes me homesick for New York; it’s my favorite season there. I love the changing leaves, the smell of the mulch, the sharp breezes and the golden farmlands. There is perfection to be had in October, sitting below a scarlet maple watching boats sail up and down the Hudson River. The sky turns a unique shade of blue that it only seems to be in the fall.
The apple crop comes in, and apple cider and fresh cider donuts are available at the orchard stand. Once-empty fields fill up with huge pumpkins and tiny children searching for the perfect jack-o-lantern. Scarecrows start popping up, made from new hay and dressed in old-fashioned clothes.
The clothing of a New York autumn is great, too. I love the colors - orange, gold, russet, hunter. And the fabrics - corduroy and wool, cotton and leather. It’s too hot to wear last year’s autumn wardrobe down here. It’ll have to wait until winter, really.
I gave up my New York autumns in exchange for Texas winters. I might not get to have fresh apple cider donuts or have a picnic on the river with my old friends, but at least I won’t be spending five hours a week shoveling snow.
Dammit people!! You describe everything so wonderfully. Now I’m “homesick.”
I spent my first 10 years in WI and I fondly remember the autumns up there. Trick-or-treating when I was shivering inside, with the leaves swirling around my feet. Watching the trees in our yard turn the most spectacular shades of red, orange and yellow until I swore they were going to burst into flames from it. I was trying to add a “I like my life in SC as it is now” spin to it, but you people aren’t helping.
Now I’m going to have to either move back to WI, or move to New England.
Down here in Maryland it’s still summer (and still soggy). The thing I miss most about Pennsylvania (and the reason I couldn’t imagine living out West) is the gorgeous fall foliage. Hopefully, I’ll get up to Harper’s Ferry or Sugarloaf Mountain this fall (or barring that, Greenbelt Park or Allen Pond).
I am very very excited as well. The tips of the chestnut trees and maples are starting to go slightly crimson. The students are pouring into my office wondering if they need to buy the book for may class, and the whole campus is in upheaval trying to sort out who gets what lap-top and from which department.
The trees on campus are all looking to the heavens wishing for that one last glimmer of summer to fad away so they can take their 7 month hiatus and catch a nap.
One student walked into me today and said: “So Mr.P, how’d you like your summer?”
I said, “Well to be honest Warner, I had a wonderful summer. But I was secretly excited about this autumn the entire time…:)”
The higher altitudes are changing color by now, but we’re still green. The place to go in Alaska in fall is the Interior. The Denali Highway is a dirt road through alpine country. The colors of the changing shrubbery is intense to the point of being painful. The berry bushes, etc. turn every shade of purple, red and orange and the poplar trees turn gold. The whole place looks like an acid poster from the 60s.
But I have to agree with you, I don’t look forward to any season like I look forward to autumn.
And I went to a shop the other day that carried huge rugs made from Apalca wool, and I could just imagine curling up on one of those in front of the fire with some mulled wine…
You describe everything so wonderfully. Now I’m “homesick.”