Autumn is different and a nice time of the year.
Autumn, also known as fall, is one of the four (or five) yearly seasons—spring, summer, autumn/football and winter. It begins on the Fall Equinox in September in the Northern Hemisphere. In 2023, the first minute of Autumn was at 2:50 AM EDT on the 23rd. On this day the daylight length was the same as the nighttime length—very closely.
Daylight length decreases and nighttime length increases as the season progresses. (The total length of a day remains at 24 hours of course.) As the days go by, the amount of daylight becomes noticeably shorter and the temperature cools considerably. Tropical storms are refrigerated and pushed away.
Why does the Earth experience these changing seasons? It seems to be that the Earth was smacked pretty solidly in the past and its axis (the north and south poles) got sent off kilter to a now steady 23.44° (degrees/angle). (Some other planets spin at different angles. Uranus at 97°, and Venus 177°. Earth was very lucky. See Wikipedia, “Axial tilt”.)
One of more noticeable features in temperate climates is the striking change in color for the leaves of deciduous trees as they prepare to shed. The trees change even before the air becomes crispy cool and the humidity drops. Botanists say that the green chlorophyll has gone out of the leaves, leaving the yellow and red colors visible that had been present all summer. According to Henry David Thoreau:
“How beautiful, when a whole tree is like one great scarlet fruit full of ripe juices, every leaf, from the lowest limb to the topmost spire, all aglow.”
There’s more too. It’s back to school/business. Covered dish parties begin to have more fruit pies. Sweet potatoes are fresh and plump. Squirrel tails are extra bushy. Chipmunks run faster. Kids get apples to eat. Pumpkins show up along the roads, leaf colors are reported. People tell you what the temperature was last night. There is usually an abundant harvest this time of year. Some of us choose flannels for comfort. Pants and sleeves elongate. Shoulders are covered up. Thanksgiving arrives. Poets become inspired and write down various musings and begin looking for an audience. Check out the following and you will see what I mean.
Crunching Leaves
Its leaf-crunching season again.
Leaves are sprinkling the sidewalks.
The weather is warm enough now
To walk outside—on cracked concrete.
It's refreshing to hear leaves crunch.
Some crunch crisply—oaks especially.
Some are the dark brown color of
An old worn saddle “Hecho en México.”
Some are the color of the grayish
Front parts of a female goldfinch.
Some look like old pumpkin squashes
Squished after Halloween for no reason.
My conscious mind is busily distracting me.
As I walk I realize I know which leaf
I'll step on in only 10 or 20 steps.
What sort of a calculation is going on here?
I was also wondering if ancestry.com
Can finally change my past for me.
They keep offering me a chance to
Update my already completed history!
I'm glad the weather's sunny today.
I am coincidentally walking when
A great many leaves need crunching.
Who else is going to get this done?
-Fred Monroe
10/15/23