Summer’s End Came Faster Than We Wanted (#76)
The circle turns again, friends, and now it is time to fall.
As the Northern Hemisphere inches each day further from the sun, we shift away from dense humidity and heat to crispness and cool (although still with a touch of humidity - you can never really escape it living near the ocean).
In the early hours of Saturday, September 23rd, summer will take its’ final bow, and autumn will stride across the stage. I haven’t looked forward as much to this show in quite some time, despite knowing the ending.
It’s always been my favourite season - unsurprising, perhaps, given my fondness for back-to-school and American football, but also for family birthdays, holidays that bring people together, and our wedding anniversary (in which we eloped on American Thanksgiving to Maine and indulged in a precious bubble of celebrating “us”).
Fall is host and witness to vibrant, rapid biological processes. While it’s still early for full fall foliage here in eastern Canada (a rule of thumb is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in early October as the best bet for an effusive display), I keep looking for a sign in the trees outside my house that the show is about to start.
And, despite knowing how it ends every year - the chlorophyll spent, the anthocyanin and carotenoids are no longer under a veil of green and can display their reds and oranges, until the leaves no longer sustain nutrition and fall to the ground1 - I anticipate the show each time September comes around.
It’s not unlike a favourite movie you’ve seen many times over.
You know the ending, but still enjoy the retelling of the story each time you press “Play”.
US Forest Service. (n.d.) Science of fall colours.
We know how it ends, but we love it just the same. I’m eager with anticipation for the colours. There is no better time for walks outdoors than fall!
Beautiful photo of the goldeneye! Great greeting to the new old season.