It is that time year once again—just keeps circling around, doesn’t it. A tinge of fall is in the air.
VT had a real summery kind of summer this year with plenty of sunshine and plenty of warm temperatures, even warm nights. Inevitably, though, that has to change and this morning the thermometer read in the 40’s. Since I was still running a slight fever yesterday (from that nasty stomach virus) I had been alternating heat waves with shivering episodes. I was shivering when I got ready for bed so I was dressed warmly and I slept through the night—a blessing indeed.
There are spots here and there of the trees in their changing process. This tree is across the road from my house. It used to be that I was thrown into a depressive episode at a sight like this in mid-August. I actually like the fall, but that first hint of it would always feel like a knife impinging on my soul.
Since retirement, this seasonal depression has not been so strong. I can now chase summer.
In all honesty, the thing that I like about Florida—and this holds true year round—is that the daylight hours remain pretty steady throughout. I don’t like the wild fluctuations. Dark at 4 p.m. in the winter, the sun never getting much above the horizon, bright daylight at 5 a.m. through 10 p.m. in the summer. I think my body does not adjust well to the fluctuations. Even as a kid when summer meant we could stay up late and run around outside for hours after supper (because it is still light out, the ultimate childhood argument), I remember being the one who ran inside crying because I just wanted to go to bed. Yeah, I like the 50/50 split so much better that even the heat and humidity don’t put me off.
Fall flowers are also all around now. Along the roadside we are seeing
purple thistles
plenty of goldenrod
Queen Anne’s lace
red clover (VT state flower).
In the garden, thank goodness for rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan) and filling in annuals like cosmos and cleome. I want the color.
Yes, yes, bring it on. I leap in the air & click my heels together at the first hint of fall in the air.
ReplyDeleteI like seeing what's growing now in VT, Olga. You have plenty ofcolor to take you into fall. It's inching toward freezing here in the mts of Co and the Aspens are already turning slightly.
ReplyDeleteWe've been promised an earlier fall color change here in the midlantic, but I'm still in summer mode. In September, I'll start thinking Autumn. Despite the heat, I still love June, July, and August!
ReplyDeletePeace,
Muff
I just saw red leaves on the sumac. According to a friend, six weeks after the sumac begin to turn, we will have our first frost. I wonder will that be true. I am feeling fall in the air. Like you, I need the color of those things that bring color this time of year.
ReplyDeleteGosh 40 degrees sounds like heaven. We are still having 100+ temps but I'm hopeful that it will soon be over. I can only imagine how beautiful the fall is in Vermont.
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are lovely. I SO SO SO wish I could join you in not mourning the loss of the daylight. It must make a difference when you can go out midday and aren't limited to before and after work. In the DARK.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're on the right side of that virus! Husband got a sudden attack of chills last evening, right out of the blue. Wonder if that was all he will have of it.
So different from here where the summer heat really just started a few weeks ago. It will be crazy hot until the middle of October at the earliest.
ReplyDeleteOh, come on, we still have a month of summer left! But . . . I did notice a bit of a chill in the air tonight when I went out to walk the dog.
ReplyDeleteWe are equally northerly here in the Seattle area, so we get the daylight hour fluctuations too. The darkest of winter is hard to take, but the rest of it I like, especially the long twilight in summer.
ReplyDeleteDue to the Pacific marine influence we will not see cold temps for a while yet. Our color will come in October.
I intent to enjoy another month of summer.
My little sister lives in Michigan and suffers from SAD -- I wonder if she would do better if she lived some place like Florida -- or better yet southern California!
ReplyDeleteI apologize for my pea-size brain... =( But, I'm a wee beeet confuze-ed.
ReplyDeleteYou live in Vermont, right? So, were you visiting Florida? or?
I LUV the pacific northwest's weather. I have a feeling that I would LUV Vermont's too. I live in Utah, not saying it isn't a nice place to live. But, it does get hot. My blood turns too thick syrup when it gets over about 80 degrees. I turn into a real slug! =)
Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures =)
hugZ,
annie
Until I moved to Istanbul I had always lived in the LA area, where we don't have seasons.... well, minor changes but nothing to get excited about. So I was totally awed by experiencing the seasonal changes in a place where summer is beautiful but oh, so humid, fall is beautiful and produces a really strong nesting impulse, winter is drippy, icy and sooty, --- and then SPRING!!! It's easier living in a no-season area, but not nearly as soul-stirring.
ReplyDeleteI love the Queen Ann's Lace. Such a nice variety! I can see some trees starting to turn here in the Northeast and it's early! It seems every season came early this year.
ReplyDeleteYou said:
ReplyDelete"It used to be that I was thrown into a depressive episode at a sight like this in mid-August. I actually like the fall, but that first hint of it would always feel like a knife impinging on my soul."
I feel the same thing. Much of it is left over from hating back to school as a child. Invariably I would feel a cool breeze blow across my Soul when seeing fireworks on the Fourth of July. It was the first reminder that the seemingly endless summer vacation was indeed finite. Then would come the wheeze of the cicadas...they are laughing at me! Its coming. Then like you said, the color changes on that single tree, you see a bright red tupelo leaf lying on the ground. Then you notice its dark at 9:00, then 8:45, then 8:30. Abandon all hope...it is coming. Like sand through your fingers, summer was rapidly sifting through your grasp. I despised going back to school. I hated those stupid ads in the Sunday paper that screamed BACK TO SCHOOL with the obligatory small chalk board with a black and yellow peppermint stick border, the damned backwards R, and an apple.
I think it now is the failing light, but I still get depressed with the onslaught of autumn, and I feel sorry for the kids.