September phenology

If this were Lake Wobegon, we might have had a quiet week. As it isn't that locale, we'll settle for a quiet Sunday. Things to look for over the next week or two:

Photo by J. Harrington

• woollybear caterpillars seeking Winter homes
• noticeable increases in leaf colors from green to red, orange, yellow, etc.
• roadside asters beginning to flower
• possible snowflakes and/or frost(?)
• dragonflies, monarch butterflies, hummingbirds and raptors migrating South
• archery deer season opener on September 19
• trout seasons closing or becoming catch and release only in SE MN

Further signs of the season can be found in this delightfully illustrated piece written last year by Greta Kaul, a MinnPost staff writer: An illustrated guide to the signs of Minnesota fall. The growing nip in the air this upcoming week should help us to feel right at home in our new season that becomes fully official in a couple of weeks.

Off A Side Road Near Staunton

By Stanley Plumly

Some nothing afternoon, no one anywhere, 

an early autumn stillness in the air, 

the kind of empty day you fill by taking in 

the full size of the valley and its layers leading 

slowly to the Blue Ridge, the quality of country, 

if you stand here long enough, you could stay 

for, step into, the way a landscape, even on a wall, 

pulls you in, one field at a time, pasture and fall 

meadow, high above the harvest, perfect

to the tree line, then spirit clouds and intermittent 

sunlit smoky rain riding the tops of the mountains, 

though you could walk until it’s dark and not reach those rains— 

you could walk the rest of the day into the picture 

and not know why, at any given moment, you’re there.

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