Saturday, August 20, 2022

Calling fall

Yesterday, Don did something he does every year about this time: He "called" fall.

Yes, in his opinion autumn is arriving. (The photo above is from last year. The trees haven't started turning color yet this year.) This is ironic since it's hotter than blazes here.


 
 
Nonetheless, fall is here, and according to Don, it has nothing whatever to do with temperature. He's more attuned to this than I am, but somehow he can sense the feel of the wind, the quality of the sounds, and perhaps at some subconscious level, the smell.

"It's a gut feeling," he explained, "like a corner has been turned. There's a 'feel' of silence in the air, of a pause. The season's growth has ended, and it's like the trees are sighing."

Sounds poetic (one of the many reasons I married the man), but when a thunderstorm came through yesterday evening and dropped the temperature as well as a bit of rain, it was hard to argue. Today was just as hot, but thunderstorms are passing through again this evening.

Yes, a corner is turned. It's becoming fall.

23 comments:

  1. I thought the same last week. Sun seemed a bit less intense. But this week the heat ramped up again and hopefully stays warm to ripen the rest of the tomatoes and peppers.

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    1. I would love to get a red tomato, never have since we moved here since we only have about 80 days to grow unless we have an overcast or early full moon (early this year) and an overcast new moon. Otherwise we usually dip down into the frost zone and I lose everything. So here's to an overcast next weekend! Since we had a really late spring I am praying it is a late summer also. Actually though the first nice warm day this year was the first day of summer, I would love if it went until the first day of fall but will be happy just getting red tomatoes.

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  2. Don is absolutely correct, I felt it a couple of days ago, I think it was the feel of the temperature that evening and it made me thing that fall was not far behind. Last night we had the same storm, it was quite a light show.

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  3. So funny! I called Fall yesterday too. My friend was laughing at this because we are back in the upper 80s. But I felt it. It IS a gut feeling. However, the geese over at the Charles River were acting differently, a little bit standoffish- like they got bigger things on their mind suddenly. I agree about the “pause”, it’s rather like the peak of low tide at Devereux Beach, Marblehead.

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  4. I feel it too here in Southern Minnesota. A change in the light as the summer winds down, a change in the sky, the wind, the overnight temps. Yesterday driving north we even saw several trees that had completely changed colors. Whoa! The other clue to me is that I get rather "nesty" that weird feeling of wanting to be prepared comes over me and I begin taking stock of food, winter clothing and bedding to see what our needs are.

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    1. I agree! I get that nesting feeling. I called fall a week ago.

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  5. Agree, it is a feeling in the air you can't describe.

    On another note, I have been debating dehydrating broccoli like you did in a post some time ago. I was hoping you would do a short update post to let us know if you like the texture after rehydrating and if you can make your broccoli salad with it. I'm concerned it would be mushy.

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  6. No such luck out here in the West! It's "cooled off" to the mid to high 90's. It's dry as a bone. I'm having to irrigate the CACTUS!

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  7. Well, the weather has changed down here in Texas. Instead of 105, this week is supposed to be in the mid to upper 80's, lots of thunder in the forcast.

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    1. I felt it last week on my way home from work. Something different in the air... And it's very unusual to have mostly 80's this time of year here in Central Texas!

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  8. I feel it here in Georgia, too. It's quite early this year; we usually don't start getting cooler for another 4-6 weeks.

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  9. I've felt this way during the last week here in Mississippi. We had a day when the temps dropped significantly and had light rain all day. It felt like an early autumn day, and the feeling came over me. I hope it's true, I want autumn to get here early this year and stay awhile.

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  10. I noticed small leaves falling from a tree near the gas station while hubby filled the tank. I think it may have been a honey locust tree. Do they drop their leaves early? Still hot here in NY and humid and DRY but rain is coming our way soon supposedly.

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  11. I'm somewhat like Don, but I have to have lived in a place for a while to develop that gut instinct about autumn. It worked in northwest Washington State, Alaska, and New Mexico. I have lived in Oklahoma for only 20 months - no sense of fall last year or, so far, this year.

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  12. I had the same sensation. The air is a little more crisp and the sunlight is more golden, like the angle of the sun is shifted.

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  13. Tell him he needs to reevaluate his prediction. I just got the first real harvest of tomatoes and am waiting on greenbeans. 😉

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  14. I noticed it last week also while taking my evening stroll through the garden. You could 'smell' it in the air. Fall is arriving a bit early here in eastern Kansas.

    Mama J

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  15. I "called it" yesterday as well (southwestern WA). It was 88 and beautiful, leaves haven't started turning really yet either. But a light breeze came up about 4:30 and I was looking out the window and told my wife "it's snowing leaves!" It was a veritable blizzard and showered down of leaves for about 3 minutes straight. A week's worth of leaves. I told her "Fall just arrived!"

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  16. The temperature is the same here in Florida, but the fall flowers and bugs have arrived.

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  17. I agree with Don… the sound of the woods seems to have quieted, and there is a certain coolness in the mornings… seems to be around the corner to me as well!

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  18. I love this! I had a morning a couple of weeks ago where I knew fall was here. There was a smell in the air that only fall has. And low and behold - here in northwestern Ohio - I saw yesterday that my maple trees in the front yard are turning already! I feel an early winter ahead for us!

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  19. The deer and turkeys have been moving around for several weeks. That's a major clue, but it's been happening early this year. The question crossed my mind seeing them crossing roads, but it was so hot I kept the mental question mark. But for almost two weeks I've verbalized my thoughts to family.
    Not just from the animals, but the really high heat broke, and weather forecasts weren't showing that early "hell" returning .
    Things aren't really turning colors yet though.
    August has been exceptionally wet instead of dry. Wet normally is fallish.
    I'm thinking we'll get an early "taste" of even cooler weather that signals leaves to start dropping.
    Have you ever noticed how brilliant fall colors are when it's been dry? Maybe all the moisture has something to do with so little change in color .
    But I too expect an early fall.

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  20. I felt Fall, too, this last week. But, I am in denial because I hate to see summer go.

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