Signs of the changing seasons

We’ve gone from a misty morning to a long, soaking, much needed rain. Perhaps soil moisture and groundwater levels may approximate where they need to be before the ground freezes. As of the end of September, our area was still in moderate drought.

With luck, today's additional moisture may coax another blossom or two from the aster that miraculously bloomed the other day after disappearing all summer.

pine tree in midst of needle drop

Photo by J. Harrington

Although many of us don’t think that conifers change colors during autumn, this is a time of year when the local pine trees drop many of their needles after they’ve changed from green to golden. On the other hand, we’ve not noticed any signs of color change in the local tamaracks. We’ll look for that later this month, about the time we reach peak color on the maples and the oak leaves begin to really change from green to metallic colors.

This week past both corn and soy bean harvests have started. The range in maturity of local corn fields is startling. Many are tan and drying, others still mostly green. Some may not get harvested until after spring’s melt.

Fall Song

by Mary Oliver

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures. 

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