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Transition from summer to fall

By Staff | Sep 13, 2013

Well, here we are in September. All of my life I have loved the fall. In some ways it is like a new beginning. Most, or at lest some of the people, look at New Years as the resetting of the clock, a chance to start anew. I look at the fall in the same way.

In West Virginia, where I live, there can be seen a certain sadness that comes with the changing of the season to fall.

The skies will stay sunny with a mixture of cool clouds. The leaves will slowly start to turn to the colors of the rainbow. The temperature at night will slowly start to become cooler. Then one night, frost well appear and we know then that the summer has passed and the full flavor of fall is upon us. The day with the long afternoon showers have started to grow shorter and a cool afternoon breeze replaces the rain.

Poet William Cullen Bryant said that fall was like an “Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile.”

How much more aware were people in the early 20th century when they didn’t travel in heated cars and buses to go to and from school or work. Folks returned home to houses that were heated by fires in fire places or, in some cases, steam heat. Today, instead of a glow from a warm fire, there is a glow from the computer screen.

John Donne put it nicely when he said “No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.”

Fall is almost here. Watch for the changing of the leaves, from deep green to bright red. Then enjoy the crisp cool breeze. that will swirl and sweep the leaves along the sidewalk. Let your eyes take in the bursts of color. Transformation of the earth from summer to fall is taking place. The transformation is upon us and hope is in the air.

As the leaves fall from the trees and wind plows them in every direction, we once again get out our trusty rakes and start to rake the leaves into neat little piles. As we go to get a trash bag to put the leaves in, the wind picks up and blows the leaves all over the lawn. As we start to rake the leaves up the wind lays them back again upon the lawn and driveway and to add insult to injury the trash bag is blown all the way down the street.

Stephen King in his book “Salem’s Lot” says of fall “But then fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.”

Now is the time to get out the sweaters and the wool socks and the long johns. Make sure you up some cocoa and oatmeal and don’t forget a jug of apple cider that will be turned into hot cider with a little cinnamon on top. Enjoy the fall!