Not too many days ago a friend and I were lamenting to each other on the phone about how the autumn foliage is not as dramatic, that the absence of serious color is a bit disappointing. How everything is either still a lackluster green or brown already. It’s getting cold, it’s almost November! Having the gift of a vibrant, spectacular Autumn always seems to make moving into the long winter days ahead so much more bearable. How it will be a bummer if it doesn’t happen. Blah blah blah, whine whine whine….

Earworm of the day, The Byrds version of “Turn Turn Turn (To Everything There is a Season)” :

To everything turn, turn, turn
There is a season turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under Heaven

So we went out in search of turning trees, and we did find some beneath an electric blue sky, with an indication that more was on the way. Perhaps not as vibrant as last year, but still enough foliage vibration to tweak the soul.

As we walked along a path, multiple garter snakes warming their bodies on the sun-heated gravel wriggled quickly away into the grass as they felt the vibrations of our footsteps moving towards them.

The wooly bear caterpillars (Isabella Tiger Moth caterpillars) were all over the place. I don’t think I have ever seen so many in one area at at time. The folklore concerning the severity of winter being predicted by the length of the black and red colored bands on its fuzzy body actually is just that. Apparently what the coloring indicates is age and time spent feeding during the growing season. The width of orange band in their center actually exhibits how much they have grown. They also become more red as they age, losing more of the black coloring each time they molt. Given all the scientific facts, I still sort of like the myth, which falls into the same category as the February groundhog and his shadow.

Yesterday my daughter and I headed south on the thruway together in order to attend an event. Even though it was gray and raining, we passed entire areas filled not with brown trees, but with turning leaves. It just so happens the color is happening There right now, instead of Here. While it is not necessarily Here yet, hopefully it will make its way north in the coming days. It’s happening. It always does. Perhaps this is the time to exercise a little bit of Patience.

A time to rain, a time to sow

In previous posts I had expressed frustration that the figs on my little potted fig tree on The Urban Porch were not ripening. And yet, they finally did, slowly and one at a time. I think there might be one last remaining one that should be ready to pick at any time. Maybe even tomorrow. Patience!

A time to plant, a time to reap

Today I walked out the front door to see the dogwood and maples by the side of the house making the transition, the Japanese Maple in the back doing its annual deep purple, and the Burning Bush on fire – as it always is without fail each year.

Patience. The goal (and challenge) as autumn fades and we move towards winter, will be exercising Patience.

~*~

“Turn, Turn, Turn” (To Everything There is a Season) – verses taken from the book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, arranged by Pete Seeger 1959, covered by The Byrds 1965.