Yesterday morning, the sun hit that particular slant of light that signaled Autumn.
I cannot specifically tell you what it looks like: a sort of faded sort indirectness, a kind of almost half seen mist, the very light itself almost seeming angled instead of straight. It is different from the sunlight of Summer: hard, coming straight down, almost violent in its rush to meet the Earth.
We still have days of heat in the 80's and 90's F ahead, but I stand by my call.
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Along with the changing of the sunlight, it appears that my Summer "Garden" is about done.
I managed to get 10 peppers over the course of the year from the Serrano pepper plant, so likely I will call that a success. The herbs I purchases made it through the Summer (although I almost managed to kill the mint from a spot of lack of water). Spinach seeds were harvested yesterday; likely I will plant them and the Autumn garden in the next day or two.
I have had worse years gardening.
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It does not feel like it today, but I realized that I am starting to reach the end of regular travel.
It is not coming quite yet: I have a trip to Old Home to attend a funeral and see my Mother-In-law and Sister-In-law next weekend, a trip to The Ranch, and then a trip for a hike. After that, it is one trip a month to The Ranch and one trip to see family a month in November and December. Travel after that is somewhat up in the air. There is probably value in checking in on the property once a month as I have been doing until it sells and I do still have to move things.
But I can potentially see an end coming soon to such regular flights.
Honestly, I would be fine with that. The coming and going is disruptive to having a regular sort of weekend life.
Yep, Fall is around the corner, took in the onions out of the garden, later this month there's potatoes to look for and of course there is Fall Fishing coming up!
ReplyDeleteNylon12, the only the saddens me about about Autumn is that it seems to be the most transient of seasons.
DeleteAmong the 472 things I would like to try here in New Home 2.0, fishing comes to mind. Unlike New Home, there is quite a lot that can be done here.
It sounds like your garden efforts this summer paid off. Even small harvests are a success, I think. Nice to hear your saving seeds too.
ReplyDeleteI look at light too, as a signal of the change of season. Ours is telling me I need to step up my fall planting.
Leigh, it is satisfying even if it is small. My challenges are space and sunlight, neither of which are directly in my control. In that sense, the fact that I got anything was amazing.
DeleteI am not sure there is a scientific rationale for the "change of light" as a sign of Autumn, other than perhaps the sun's changing position. It sure seems to be accurate, thought.
With highs only in the low 80's, that is close enough to fall temps and far enough from the high 90's of summer, that I'm okay with calling it fall too. I usually stick to the calendar months when calculating seasons and Sept 1 has always been the first day of fall for me even if meteorologically speaking, it is several weeks away.
ReplyDeleteEd, given that we have only been hear a little over a year, I had no sense yet of how the calendar corresponds to the seasons, other than I have been reliably told by my work friends that end of June to Labor Day is the height of Summer here. Judging by the 10 day forecast as of now, we have two more days of around 90 F and then we slowly start sinking.
DeleteTB, I noticed the sky was a crisp crystal blue yesterday - the way it gets in early autumn. And this evening, I felt like the sunlight had changed from what it was yesterday (I was in the garden late yesterday and this evening it was markedly different). Slanted. I couldn't come up with a way to describe it, but I think that fits. The change in the sky color and the way the early evening light appears feels early this year. Normally, these are things I notice in October. I, too, wish autumn's beauty lasted longer than it does.
ReplyDeleteBecki, OAF Sarge at his blog described it as the light being muted. This also seems to capture it.
DeleteI cannot tell you when it happened, sometime between last Saturday and this past Monday. But it was noticeable.
I do wish Autumn was longer as well.