It's In The Air

photo by Andrea Geesaman

There is something in the air.  
You can feel it.

photo by Andrea Geesaman

Birds can sense it.

photo by Andrea Geesaman

It's time to get moving.  
Better to be prepared.

The sun still warms the day;  
comforting, even somnific.  
But morning and evening bring a chill.  
A gentle warning carried on the breeze. 
Chimneys and stoves,
are checked and readied.  
And, wood is everywhere...

... encroaching on corners 
where garden tools once stood.

The new season has a smell. 
Wood-smoke hangs, 
cloud-like, 
in the cool morning air,
where it mixes with the scent
of new cut hay in the mow.
Winter feed-
for cloven-footed friends. 

Oh, how the March lambs have grown!  
On their own now; 
taking energy from the last of summer's green grass. 
It's their rumspringa.  
Know-it-all teenagers.
Baa-Ram-Ewe!

The green apples stand out against the clear blue sky;
clearest and bluest of the year.
The flowers try to hang on;  
darlings of an earlier season,
a warmer time.

Always late to the party, 
the asters give it their best, 
filling roadside ditches with shades 
of purple and white...

photo by Andrea Geesaman

... while over in the meadow
there is a last gasp.

But you can't stop it.
You won't change it.  
The angle of the sun 
casts long shadows now. 

photo by Andrea Geesaman

And, in this light, in these shadows, 
in this brief period 
between the color of Summer and the color of Autumn...  

... the sombre earth tones 

finally get their chance to glow. 

The grays, the beiges, the browns.

photo by Andrea Geesaman

But very soon, 
those first brilliant messengers will fall to earth,
red, yellow, gold, 
one after the other, 
laying down their lives 
to herald the great blaze about to overtake New England.  
They'll shout:
"Let it be known, it's the time of the trees 
and Fall is here!"  
It's in the air.