Squirrelly

Monday

Usually flaming tree at Mill Dam park shows subdued hues this year.

• Squirrels race about to grab and bury plentiful nuts in the lawn.  Chipmunks and birds stuff themselves to put on fat reserves.  Trees are finally getting into the act, color breaks out overhead, even as the ground becomes more and more stiff dull brown.  This year, the transition seems more condensed than usual, a frantic week or two in what is otherwise an extended month of change.
• Humans of course get into the act.  There are suddenly lots of chores which are pleasant enough while the weather is fine and slightly cool, but absolutely awful tasks once the deep cold, frost, November gales, and heavy rains set in.  Plant bulbs, clean yards, put away summer stuff.  Not to mention trying to squeeze in a few more moments pleasantly walking through woodlands, sitting on the beach, or just strolling around the neighborhood.

Tuesday

Boats are now coming in for winter storage, a constant and busy noise at these docks.

• Our patio is almost its own microclimate:  shielded from the north winds by the house, facing south although partially shaded, flagstones to retain heat.  Joan tends it carefully every spring and summer, sadly watches its decline in autumn, and has only the feeding birds to remind her of its floral glories in warmer months.
• The spring and fall are busy times.  In October, after things die back but before (hopefully) the onset of nasty weather, we have to bring in things like the umbrella and bistro set, drain the fountain.  Clear out dozens of pots and place them under an overhang to be sheltered from snow.  Clear flower beds of weeds and dying growth.  Plant bulbs for the spring.  Put hoses into the shed.  I get tired just listing things to do _ but the fact is that like many such things, thinking about them is harder than just getting them done. 

Wednesday

A few trees are fully denuded, but they seem almost out of place.

• If you don’t like the weather, wait an hour.
• Applicable this month _ if you do like the weather, seize each transitory moment.

Thursday

Last vestiges of warmth reflecting in calm waters.

• I imagine by now hibernating creatures have their burrows well prepared.  Migratory birds are far along their allocated flyways.  Annuals have condensed into nothing but seeds.  Deciduous trees are about the make their annual statement to the landscape, announcing to one and all what season has come.
• Indoors, we have some of the same rituals.  Put away the bathing suits and shorts.  Get out the gloves and long pants and wool caps and boots.  Check the status of the snow shovels.  At least locate the long underwear, flannel shirts, and heavy socks.  We may not hibernate, but our homes also reflect what is happening outside the windows.  

Friday

Chipmunks grab some last bites for dinner before their upcoming long nap.

• Centuries ago, especially in Europe and its northern colonies, this was a time of feasting, if there were to be any feasting.  Beginning in September as some of the fruits and vegetables were so abundant that “use it or lose it” became true, through the shortest day to come, it was almost obligatory to add every extra pound of fat for warmth and to help through the lean times to follow.
• Now we feast every day, year round, and never get into enforced starvation nor limitations.  Yet the feast days remain in autumn, always encouraging to eat more, as if we were woodchucks or chipmunks or bears.  We look at such creatures and rationalize “ah, we are just like them, so this extra weight is fine and natural.”  But we are not.

Saturday

Squirrels busily hide nuts by digging holes all over our lawn.  I can’t believe they find them later.

“Mommy, I don’t want to wear this jacket.”

“It’s cold, dear, you must or you will get a cold.”

“But it makes me sweat.  I don’t like it, I can’t run fast.”

“You will need to get used to it, this is just the start.  Look at the trees.”

“What about them, Mommy?”

“See how they are colored?  Soon all the leaves will fall down as they go to sleep.”

“But I still don’t want my jacket.  Can I at least leave it open?”

“Ok, dear,” she replies with a smiling sigh.

Sunday

Last leaves on the vines climbing evergreens add their subtle fall colors to the mix.

Violin’s autumn sobs are long

But not in this bright warmer year

I stroll about no jacket on

Untouched by normal season’s fear.

Uncertain world resists the rhymes

Contradicts each mournful song

I find it comforting to find

That poetry is sometimes wrong.

All Fall Down

Monday

As weather fronts arrive, differing heats of air, land, and sea produce lovely mists and fogs.

• Dramatic changes in two weeks have heralded the entry into colder weather.  Almost overnight, literally overnight in some cases, leaves switched from green to gold.  Scarlet above became common.  Orange gleamed on hills.  And beneath was brown, more brown, and piles of brown.
• Some seasons glide in gracefully, almost unnoticed.  That is unfortunately often the pattern in spring, when I keep expecting better weather than there could possibly be.  This autumn has held on to summer conditions way beyond normal.  Although much appreciated, that has left little time for transition to cold wind and bare branches.

Tuesday

Nuts make for treacherous footing especially if I don’t get them up before hidden by fallen leaves.

• For weeks now, hickory nut bombs have been shattering on pavement or denting roofs and unwary cars underneath.  Many split open as they hit hard surfaces.  Squirrels rush about digging holes in gardens and lawns, frantically hiding larders in hopes of discovering them when the ground freezes.
• Hickory is barely edible, if there is absolutely nothing else available.  But I find them a constant nuisance, and simply scoop them up in heavy pails to put out with the rest of the yard waste.  I suppose they compost with the leaves and branches at our town site, but sometimes it seems more like throwing out heavy wooden furniture and hoping it will decompose in any reasonable time. 

Wednesday

The deluge has begun _ just barely _ at the top of our driveway.

• Ring around the rosie ….
• Cheerful black death ditty proving humans can grimly laugh at anything.

Thursday

Milkweed seeds setting off to find a homestead for next year.

• Colors are now sneaking onto the scene like unexpected guests.  Suddenly a patch of brilliant crimson, or a long splash of astounding gold will announce summer has in fact ended.  Meanwhile the greens get just a bit more drab, the weeds a lot more brittle and brown, and the butterflies and bees much less numerous.
• Warm temperatures have made this October a great time to be outdoors, although some are grumbling that it remains far too humid and hot for their taste.  I love the fact that I have been able to sit on the water or on a park bench still without heavy jacket, soaking in sun for the last time before dark months and chill settle in for their long siege.

Friday

In spite of lots of greenery, this scene with grasses could only appear in October.

• Dogwoods have faithfully recorded the passing of days.  Berries have turned bright red and fallen to the ground.  Leaves have gradually shown dark scarlet veins, then lost almost all their green hue, and are now crisping and falling quickly as rains settle in.  Soon their branches will again be bare against the purpling sky.
• Dogwoods represent perhaps the most noble and consistent local ornamentals.  Their blossoms signal that true spring has arrived, their airy canopies provide light shade all summer, and their strange branching patterns are always fascinating when covered with new snowfall.  But in autumn, although hardly as spectacular as some maples, they change almost like clockwork, and always remind me of what is really going on in spite of the day to day weather.

Saturday

Barry hoists a heavy machine onto his back with a groan as sunbeams flicker horizontally.  “Boy, I’m glad this is the last one.  What a day.”

“Yeah, Peterson’s was nasty,” agrees Juan.  “That woman, she is some kind of evil.”

“Every damn leaf, even under the shrubs.”

“These people, they are truly crazy, I think.”

“No, Juan, no.  Poor people are crazy.  Rich people are eccentric.  Look around.  These are all rich people.”

“I wonder what they do to have so much?”

“So does everyone,” laughs Barry.  “So does everyone.”

With a tug and mutual roars only partially shielded by big ear protectors, they begin yet another Sisyphean task.

Sunday

Pokeweed berries shining but undisturbed, probably because of the extravagant banquet available everywhere else.

Once upon a time, I hear

You didn’t need a weatherman

For wind direction, far or near

A task that anybody can

But modern times we specialize

Need web-wide facts to get along

Don’t trust our mind, nor ears, nor eyes,

Our simple finger might be wrong.

Is it fall, do leaves come down?

From in this room I cannot know

Too busy to go look around

And tell which way the wind may blow.

Over The Hills

Monday

Centuries-old beech finally felled by disease, another part of our historic community vanished into memory.

• I accuse myself of increasingly ignoring the wider world.  Digging into my own patch of paradise to appreciate it more, I screen out tragedy and portent and disengage from guilt.  This is, perhaps, wrong. There are small chores to be done, family matters to handle, our own daily routines. 
• But what our civilization increasingly seems to lack is a well-developed personal center.  All the running and shopping and eating and entertaining and confusion appears not only shallow, but unsatisfying to deeper instinct.  Like most, I have been too busy in life to deeply contemplate.  Now, if ever, is the time I can do do.

Tuesday

Joan and the neighbors decorate yards and porches with reminders of the season.

• Happily, some bats are back, darting about overhead in twilight.  They had almost disappeared for a few years, victims of white-nose disease.  There was apparently nothing anyone could do to save them, and if indeed they are recovering it will be from their own biological processes.
• This is how it is with many things.  Can any one of us save local bats?  A friend who has bat-houses on his home also noticed the severe decline, but remained helpless.  Like so many things, we seem to have power to spare and knowledge to fix, but we have both less power and less knowing than our hubris would have us believe.  Not much more to be done than to take notice and hope.  

Wednesday

Like turning leaves, boats will soon mostly vanish from scenery as winter preparations continue.

• The farther you go …
• It is possible to learn more, but also possible to be blind to what you see.

Thursday

Unexpected morning glories glow in late morning deep into the season.

• There are current fads to apply scientific methodology to our interior ecologies.  I am always amused at this or that latest finding in such things as selfishness or happiness.  None of those experiments can be easily replicated, and even the conclusions are debatable depending on how one interprets the results.  Humans are much too complex for such things to work.
• I wish our electronic age would start to put some real effort into a modern philosophy.  The moldy scraps we still use _ ancient Greeks and more ancient prophets, discredited economists, the confused babblings of the enlightenment writers _ do not provide much comfort in these unsettled times.

Friday

Flashes of color here and there can be stunning, but usually we are in too much of a hurry to notice.

• In this later than usual season, I have been pleasantly surprised to finally notice a few monarch butterflies.  I was even more astonished at a hovering hummingbird seeking nectar from a purple phlox right outside the window.  Here, then suddenly gone, as if hallucinated.
• I wish to believe that even now there remain wild spaces beyond this narrow heavily populated zone.  Somewhere butterflies romp freely, hummingbirds congregate, and fish thrive.  But I know all too well that is more an illusion than reality.  I fear some of these visitors who bring me such joy are the last of a declining multitude, and that each must be cherished as possibly the last one.

Saturday

Autumn becoming more obvious with each passing day.

Out in late twilight putting garbage at the end of the driveway.  The sound of insects and tree frogs is overwhelming, so different than the birdsong of early morning.  Nobody else around, but glows emanate from windows everywhere.  It is easy to imagine what sounds would be coming out, if anyone had windows open.

“Three dead in latest shooting incident …”

“Korea threatens and the president responds angrily in spite of …”

“More bad news from school scores …”

“Police reports claim that …”

“The latest massive study of the effects of red meat and avocados reports that …”

“Hurricane gathers strength, latest in series of natural disasters to strike Florida tomorrow.”

A faint siren wails from town.

Troubles all around, apparently troubles everywhere but here.  I gaze at final glimmers of deep red in the western sky, take a deep breath, and try to restrict my perceptions to my own personal space.  The rest will intrude soon enough.

Sunday

Low warm morning mist softens the sky behind glowing aged foliage.

Ancient wizened sage

Ignorant on mountain

Claims

Insight and wisdom

In Like A Lamb

Monday

Only the bronze tint of waterside grasses betray an idyllic scene that has appeared changeless since July.

• In Huntington, March weather does not match that of Merrie Olde England.  But a reversal of the old proverb usually fits October perfectly _ it comes in like a lamb and leaves as a lion. 
• To start there are cooler days and especially nights, a few chill breezes, earlier evenings.  But gardens are still intact, flowers bloom, lawns grow.  Once in a while there is need for a light jacket.  Greenery remains mostly in place on the trees.  Rain is light and storms not too ferocious.
• Ah, but in the 31 allotted days, all reverses.  Deep cold and frost hit hard.  Nights constrict daylight and shortly after Halloween, take over as daylight saving ends.  Children running about in shorts as the month begins have to put on heavy sweaters or coats under their costumes.  Harbingers of fierce November tempests arrive.  Clearing leaves is an ongoing chore.  Those who have put off winterization scurry to their tasks.

Tuesday

Goldenrod dominates most scenes, bees are busy gathering nectar even as temperatures drop.

• Skies hover blue and fair, with high white clouds.  Almost impossible to imagine the coming purple heavy gales, or possible snowflakes, or killing frost.  Sunsets have started to be glorious, all red skies and garish painted colors.
• I force myself to walk about, savoring each moment as if it may be the last of the year.  The last dahlia bloom, the last day without a sweatshirt, the last time barefoot on the grass.  Personally the month of October, more than any other, is the time of loss.

Wednesday

Montauk daisies are in full display, some clumps thriving on little more than sand and salt water.

• Gather ye rosebuds ….
• Or rosehips, which will also soon shrivel and vanish

Thursday

Old green-apple tree beside the ancient farmhouse on Lloyd Inlet.

• I’m enjoying about the last of local field tomatoes, and fresh corn is becoming rare.  Harvest lingers, but except for vineyards, most crops have picked and stored.  This is no change from generations and centuries past, except that we no longer care much.  Once October would begin a time of resignation, and possible panic.   Were the food-crops plentiful, is a great deal stored away for the privation of winter, are we truly prepared for eight or more months before there is again anything fresh?  If a disaster like hail or drought or flood had ruined the plantings, many would go hungry and too many might die.
• Now, of course, we like to pretend we can eat locally, but only as a fetish.  We are confident food can be stored indefinitely, and brought from anywhere else on the planet, and even grown fresh further south while we shelter snowbound.   The terror is gone.  Perhaps we fool ourselves _ the supply chains are, after all, quite fragile.   But the fact that it is October does not matter at all.

Friday

Weighed down by heavy seeds but not yet battered, grasses float elegantly in water reflecting the clear sky.

• Goldenrod has flamed into glory, taking over whole fields and roadsides.   For a few weeks, its yellow mist pervades the scenery, then it too shrivels brown with white patches of seed carriers.
• As for the rest of the vegetation, brown and brittle is gradually edging out the greens and yellows.  There are no young replacements, except in foolishly planted human gardens.  When a leaf falls, it is gone.  When a stem dries, no shoot springs forth below.  For a little while, cultivated roses will continue to grow, bud, and flower, but the long nights are already taking toll on that last growth as well.    

Saturday

Asters are another joy of autumn, springing from nowhere into full, furious blossom as temperatures fall.

“Looking sharp, Mr. Shadow!”

“Thank you, thank you, Ms. Sunbeam.”

“How’s your crowds, these days?  Doing well, I hope.”

“Could be better, could be.  A month ago they couldn’t get enough of me, everyone jamming into shade everywhere.  Now they even seem to be avoiding me whenever possible.”

“Fickle.”

“You can say that again, Ms. Sunbeam.  No longevity in our business.”

“Well, just talked to Billy Wind.  They used to cheer when he showed up in July and August, now he claims they not only complain but sometimes boo and curse.”

“Fickle indeed.  Not like the old days.”

“Nope, Mr. Shadow.  It was all better back then.”

Sunday

Huntington Fall Festival beginning to fill up on a beautiful hot morning as families forget the cares of the world.

So warm this early October

Not Indian Summer, no cold spell yet

We appreciate sunny skies

At least for today

Worry a little

What it may mean long term

Seeing Red

Monday

Nothing quite brilliant yet, but lovely contrast in its own right on display in the Japanese maple.

• This September has been unusually warm and well-watered.  There have also been no overly windy storms.  Some trees continue full display as if this were md-summer. 
• Closer examination reveals, however, that the chlorophyll is starting to leach away .  Some leaves may gleam more shockingly scarlet than others, some reveal insect damage, and a few have already crisped brown and drifted onto pavement.

Tuesday

A few sheltered roses may bloom until first frost, but for most this is its final flower of the year.

• There is plenty of red left over from summer this year.  Roses still bloom sporadically, various fragile annuals have not succumbed to deep overnight low temperatures.  But internal clocks on even those are setting off alarms to produce seed, and either die of old age or begin the work of hibernation.
• Rose cycles remind me of the standard-issue biography of artists.  As spring goes by they quickly grow from seemingly dead stalks and by early summer are in full glorious display, covered with huge, marvelously shaped, and often fragrant flowers, with buds the look even more delicious.  From these a few few rose hips are produced into midsummer.  Although the exuberance is gone, a few blossoms burst forth through early fall, becoming less and less, always unexpected.  And then it is over.

Wednesday

It can be the most unnoticed niche which provides great beauty, simply because we usually fail to see it.

• Red sun at night, sailor’s delight.
• Weather on Long Island does not always arrive with the west wind.

Thursday

Autumnal fogs often arrive bringing a tactile spray of light mist to mysterious luminosity and silence.

• In my youth we thought we knew all about biology.  We remained almost totally unaware, not even at the point when as, today, we admit our own ignorance.  A little beyond the application of some mysterious life force to animate the inanimate, but not much.  Trees in fall were one example.
• We learned that trees stop making chlorophyll which turns leaves green.  That reveals all the pigments that remain so spectacularly in sugar maples.  Then the water stops, leaves brown and fall, and another yearly cycle is complete.
• Now it turns out to be far more complex.  The tree actively reabsorbs a lot of difficult-to-find molecules and stores them.  Ecology is enriched and partially controlled by what hits the ground, and becomes self-reinforcing for the parent.  Triggers such as light and moisture and cold are still unresolved. 
• It is a wonderfully intricate dance, which people who just looked and marveled knew a long time ago.

Friday

This ivy is poisonous only to humans, which seems appropriate, and beautiful as it dies back.

• Maples are beginning to tune their crowns, and spaced here and there are dashes of a branch or two glittering orange, red, and yellow.  Maples are glories in New England autumn.  People take long trips to see them, lingering in groves that are naturally as spectacular as any other sights on this continent.
• Unfortunately, climate change and pollution have severely cut back the local examples, many of which have died out even in the last thirty years or so.  I still have my known specimens to visit, and they mostly still reward, but more and more I see them as hardy survivors, the likes of which will not be seen around here for some time.
• A lot like myself.  

Saturday

Genetic quirk or microclimate allows a few early red branches to creep into landscapes,

“Little Snowbird, have a good time far away!”

“Shiver as you will, Big Maple!”

“I like the change of seasonal views!”

“I like the warmth and food.”

“I get time to meditate and think.”

“I get to watch flowers, swim, and eat all winter.”

“Well, be careful .  Have a wonderful time!”

“You too.  See you next spring!”

Sunday

Smartweed has matured everywhere in thick masses, hidden in plain sight under everything else.

Each day so fine, cannot be told

Nor instants counted, saved, nor sold

A construct of time’s flashing blade

Which my own memories have made.

A week, a month, a year, and more

Perhaps once here, now gone for sure.