Now comes September, the month for Autumn’s preview.
And the clues are everywhere; they fill up the senses from sky to ground and all around.
There is a special hue to the blue of the sky more cloud-filled now with multi-shaped marshmallow whites trimmed in steel blue edges.
The sun itself is beginning to take its more southern tilt and its warmth wanes into fleeting moments of sweet comfort.
Hints of color change
are beginning to brush paint tree tops with splotches of yellows and reds amongst the
natural greens of hardwood deciduous crowns.
A strong hint of Fall’s flaming foliage is to be seen in the crimson red hues of blackberry and blueberry bushes where berry fruits still linger longer.
Even the mountain streams participate in the prelude of Autumn’s equinox as they flow lower and slower in the lazier days of Summer’s gradual demise. A careful walk along the banks is witness to a flurry of this season’s frog population that leaps into the waters to hide among the plant growth a foot or so from the water’s edge.
Chickadees are more numerous and visible too. It is because other bird life has become more subdued as they psyche themselves in readiness for their annual migration. It is also because chickadees simply must assert themselves for their time and place in the hills and valleys of Appalachian Mountain Country.
It is especially in the grasses of fields and meadows that Autumn’s curtain call is most resolutely announced. The fresh virile green has given way to stiff, crisp tans and browns which rasp in the winds of late summer to replace the rustle of the weeks just past.
There is a strong sense of change for we who live in and love this land from the eager expectancy of Spring through the grateful acceptance of Summer into the haunting nostalgia of Autumn. It is, indeed, a celebration of life and living in these everlasting hills and ever loving valleys.
Copyright © 1988, 1999 Barbara A. Smith and John G. Hipps. All rights reserved.
This essay was first published September 7, 1988 in the Free-Press Courier, Westfield, Pennsylvania.