Autumn truly is what summer pretends to be: the best of all seasons. It is as glorious as summer is tedious; as subtle as summer is obvious; as refreshing as summer is wearying. Autumn seems like paradise.
~Gregg Easterbrook
This is how I know that autumn is coming:
Squirrels. They're going nuts in my backyard, knocking pecans out of the trees and leaving them half-eaten on my freshly-swept deck. They're furiously digging little holes in the lawn and burying the treasure there. They chatter back and forth, saying, "Over here! Over here! I've found the motherlode!", bouncing up and down and raining pecans down on my head like hail. When I look up, I hear them say, "chickachickachicka! chickachickachicka!"...and I know they're laughing. They do high wire acts, spinning one-armed around the cables and swinging from their toes. They scamper and skip from limb to bending limb... their weight arcing the highest branches until I'm sure they'll snap, and then they're gone....a vertical leap to another precarious branch even higher and bendier. "chickachickachicka! chickachickachicka!"
Today is the first official day of autumn. The temperature will soar to 100 degrees; it won't feel like autumn at all. But the squirrels give me hope.
4 comments:
Yeah -- we have squirrels devouring all of our pecans, too. Around the corner, a neighbor has slippery metal bodices around his pecan trees' trunks to keep them from climbing up and taking the harvest. They look silly, but his trees are still loaded so I guess it's working!
I LOVE AUTUMN...Michigan autumn is the stuff of which poetry is made.
Come any year, Stacy, and I'll take you up north for a color tour. It's colorful here, too, but nothing like the landscape you see along the shorelines of Lake Michigan.
Ahhh...cool air blowing in the window, a bit of a drizzle, and leaves spinning down. I love it.
We were in Door County (WI) last weekend and many of the trees have already turned. It is a beautiful time of year. Keep an eye on those squirrels - they may have heard what a nice warm and cozy place you have and decide to, um, move in......
Oh Squirrels! I love 'em - do you think they'll still be around when I visit??? :D
Post a Comment