Fall Is Here

Fall is astronomical
beginning with the autumnal equinox in September, equal day and and equal night,
ending with the winter solstice in December, shortest day, longest night.

Fall is bird behavior
migrating from the northern lands or from the mountain tops,
flocking together.

Fall is transitional weather
warm dry afternoons,
cool damp mornings,
wind.

Fall is aromatic
wood smoke in the evening,
decay of once green plants,
spicy chrysanthemums,
rosemary and sage.

Fall is colorful
fruit trees and berries mostly in the rose family,
persimmon, pomegranate and grape,
but also deciduous trees like crepe myrtle, sweetgum and gingko,
and native riparian trees, the bigleaf maple, the box elder, the sycamore,
cottonwoods and willows,

Fall is here.

Early Morning Sun

The reliable Roger's Red Grape shows some color change in the early morning, low-angle sun of mid-autumn. Click the photo to enlarge it, much prettier that way.

How many bushtits will fit in a bird bath?

Right now there are about twenty-five.

One of the more consistent signs of a change in seasons is bird flocking and bird migration. These little guys are so cute all splashing around together. In spring they will separate into pairs once again.


This picture is from Las Pilitas Nursery website on the page called "How to build a simple bird bath to enhance your Garden." Worth reading.

Rubies

On a walk today at Descanso Gardens, a ruby-crowned kinglet landed in a camellia near my shoulder displaying its bright red crown. This behavior is highly unusual to see. Lucky me.

Further along on the walk I spied a bright red-leaved tree off in the distance growing next to an arroyo willow on the edge of the bird pond. The tree was unfamiliar to the walk leader; he suggested birds as a source for it.

I brought home a fallen leaf. The closest I can come to it identifying it is tupelo or black gum, Nyssa sylvatica, a tree of eastern United States.

Migrating trees. Migrating birds. Both the same color of bright ruby red!

Buttermilk Sky

"Will you be mellow and bright tonight, ole buttermilk sky?"

My mother always had the radio on tuned to a program called "The Breakfast Club" which played "Buttermilk Sky" often. It was a long time before I actually saw one. The name comes from the resemblance of the clouds to the texture of cultured milk. The presence of high ice (cirrus) clouds in the sky is an indicator of patterns in the atmosphere that will most likely shift in a couple of days.


Sure enough. NWS LOX forecast says
A WEAK TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE WILL MOVE THROUGH THE REGION TODAY AND TONIGHT...BRINGING COOLER TEMPERATURES AND A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS. BREEZY AND COOL CONDITIONS WILL PERSIST INTO SATURDAY..

Stay tuned ....

The Autumn Wind

"The autumn wind broke in a tide on the house."

"The wind died down, sad, mourning in the high trees, passing away ..."

"For two hours in the now-warm, now-cold wind, he walked the meadows collecting toadstools and spiders."


In Ray Bradbury's October Country which I always read this time of year, the wind is a major influence in the stories.
The wind, be it a fierce bluster out of the northwest or a gentle afternoon sea breeze, is a major shaper of the scenery here, too.


When the leaves start to turn color, out comes the wind knocking them off. This gives the trees have a scraggly appearance, bald at the top, a colorful red-orange and green in the middle, and shabby brown leaves at their feet.

The Scent of Fall

Every morning when I step outside to go pick up the newspaper, first thing I do is inhale deeply to sample the air. Sometimes I get a whiff of the ocean, other times a hint of heat to come or last night's lingering wood smoke or a tropical sweetness from the night-blooming white flowers.

Today, however, was different. It was the scent of autumn ... of chill, of earth, of decay ... clean and sharp.