Death throes of summer

[muckefuck]

I'm not sure how much longer I can persist in my refusal to acknowledge the arrival of fall. I've seen a wide range of trees--from honey locusts to lindens--that are some stage of colour change; a few of the sugar maples up at work are almost completely leafless. But most trees and shrubs are still quite green. Most of the flowering plants in the prairie garden near me are finished and beginning to wither, but people's gardens are still vibrant; I've even seen roses still in full bloom. I've heard wild geese migrating--but the last flock I saw was flying due north! There are fewer insects chirping in the trees these days, but by gum they're still there.

Whatever calendrical and natural augurs there may be, there remains the sticky fact that it doesn't feel like fall. I keep waiting for that unique crispness which I feel defines the seasons, and it's not there. Even the few chilly days feel more like late spring than anything else. Today wasn't one of those. I set out for a walk in the park expecting a cool breeze and finding it uncomfortably warm in the sunshine. I thought I'd buy an ice cream to cool me down--in all likelihood my last of the season--but I'd only had one lick before the stick snapped in two and it was lying on the filthy sidewalk. I took this as a sign of divine censure--someone up there does not want me eating ice cream!--and ignored subsequent opportunities to purchase a replacement.

My fear is that I'll come back from China in three weeks to find us already in the grim gray drizzle of early winter; autumn will have come and gone in an eyeblink while my gaze was fixed elsewhere. Just my bad luck that the best time to visit Beijing also happens to be the best time to stay put right here. My older brother reminds me that I'll have plenty more falls in Chicago (אם ירצה השם). But there's something intrinsic to the season which makes me feel like each time could be the last. I really don't blame my savage ancestors for succumbing to the anxiety that if they didn't burn a few more unfortunates alive, then maybe spring really wouldn't return the following year.

Comments

My refusal to acknowledge the arrival of fall

[ursine1.livejournal.com]

Yesterday when I was fertilizing the plants on the terraza I noticed more tomatos had set. Nights here are around 20ºC and days 25ªC, so it's not summer, but it doesn't seem like fall yet either. We did have a cool morning last week (13ºC), but it quickly warmed up again. Few trees "turn" here, but they do lose their leaves and that hasn't happened yet.

Chuck

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

I looked at the weather forecast for the next week and went ahead and transplanted some pachysandra into a dead patch in the parkway here on Saturday. So far they look like they'll live!

It doesn't feel like fall to me either, except leaves are indeed piling up on front stoop, and then getting rained on so I don't want to pick them yet, except it will probably rain again in a few days, so that's exactly like every other year at least.