“AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” Day (Morning Musings for 8/18/14)

Oaks and Grass, Late Summer
Oaks and Grass, Late Summer

Oaks and Grass, Late Summer. Santa Clara County, California. August 17 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late summer morning fog clears about oak and grass-covered California hills. (And yes, it is the same image I shared earlier as today’s daily photograph.)

I first encountered “AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” day — which is my own invention, so don’t try to look it up! — many years ago on a Sierra Nevada backpacking trip. I recall the day specifically, even though it was decades ago. At the time I didn’t know quite what it was even though I clearly sensed the symptoms. As we hiked, we passed an expansive, remote meadow in which a large group of deer were feeding. It was a summer day by the calendar, but it felt different from all of the previous days of that summer. The day was windy and we felt compelled to wear warmer clothes than on other days on this trip. After that I began to notice it more regularly and pay attention to it, and I am now aware of its arrival every year.

It comes unannounced and not on any specific day. For me it typically shows up on a day in the middle of August, at a point when we are just a bit closer to the end of summer than to its beginning. I suspect that its arrival is a rather subjective thing, and that it varies by location and each person’s exposure and sensitivity to natural patterns — though this week when I pointed out  its arrival to my wife while we were walking, she agreed that she felt it, too.

I cannot quite put my finger on what it is that I sense, even though I’m certain that it is here when I do sense it. I think that the quality of light has something to do with it, and yesterday we both agreed that it made sense to speak of this light as being somehow “softer.” I know it when I see it, and when I then pay attention to the light I detect a certain loss of clarity in the atmosphere, almost as if there is a bit more of a luminous haze.

But it isn’t just the light. One August I was backpacking across a meadow in the Yosemite Sierra and suddenly becoming aware of it. Again, although I recognized what I was feeling, I wasn’t completely clear about the specific cause, though I had a very clear sense that it had to do with a change in the sound quality of the wind and the way it carried across space. More recently I experienced it while hiking though a place much like that in the photograph accompanying this post, and as I hiked I tried to understand as many aspects of it as I could. The morning breeze had a crisp edge, even though the sunlight was warm. There was a glowing haze as morning fog cleared. I walked past piles of fallen oak leaves and noticed a faint sweet, musty autumn fragrance, and as I walked on them I felt and heard their crunch. I wondered whether it might be that, at some subconscious level, I was aware that the sun was now a bit lower in the sky, or if I was more aware that seasonal plants had stopped growing and were now in decline.

On this day, whenever it arrives and without any doubt, I have a certain awareness of the inevitable approach of autumn and the fading away of summer. Until this day I live in the patterns of summer, taking the warm weather for granted, complaining about the heat, and making summer plans and perhaps putting them off, comfortable in the knowledge that there is plenty of summer left. I watch my vegetable garden grow and anticipate the ripening of vegetables and fruit. But then, on “AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” day, my perspective switches — now summer is no longer coming nor here, but instead coming to an end. Summer things must be done soon. It is time to plant a fall garden. And out there on the horizon of my thinking now are autumn and then winter… my favorite seasons of the year.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.© Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

5 thoughts on ““AutumnIsAroundTheCorner” Day (Morning Musings for 8/18/14)”

  1. Oh, I know this feeling, Dan. In New England, there’s thousands of little tells; The air feels cooler, but the earth feels warm, and afternoon light takes on a richer, more golden tone. Trees, long before they start turning color, begin to take on an aura of weariness. But the biggest tell of all is the smell. You can smell autumn coming up the road, I swear you can.

    Hear in Yosemite it’s the same thing–but for the past few years the tells have been overshadowed by smoke of forest fires. But this year it’s different; there’s one dogwood by the post office that is showing color already, probably due to the prolonged drought and the high temps and smoke.

    I’ll probably be gone by the first week of October to Missouri for the winter, and then off to Rhode Island for my son’s wedding. Sadly, it’ll be at the end of October, and all the leaves will be on the ground by then.

    In any case, I’ll raise a glass to you and John Barleycorn, for the turning of the seasons.

    Edie

    1. Edie, I’m certain that you do know these signs and feelings! Oddly, when I’m in the Sierra, the autumn wildfire smoke is probably one of the signals — that is a regular thing that time of year, alternately scary and aggravating and sometimes producing interesting atmospheric conditions. This year and the past couple of years have been beyond the normal, but I eventually came to accept the smoke as a normal seasonal event.

      Your son is getting married! Congratulations, and how exciting!

      Dan

  2. I’d never named it, but I’ve always noticed that feeling sometime in August as well, whether in Idaho, Utah, New Mexico or even here in the California desert. And it’s always welcome, a breath of change in the air with promise of new horizons!

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