Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Yo, Summer... Time's Up.

Hints that summer is gone.

Coolness in the shade. Squirrels hiding nuts they'll never find. Birds on wing, doing those aerial acrobatics in perfect synchronization. Okay, I have to be honest here.... the birds freak me out. I saw The Birds once too often, and I tend to want to hide in a steel house when I see them flocking.

The novella was even scarier.

A heavy mist came up today, blanketing the Island, and it gave me an idea of what it was like, when this area was settled in 1622, a year that shocks me when I think about it... that long ago?

I think about it was I walk up the hill, under the trees that have changed overnight...realising they are behind the season. "Quick! It's October, and we are still green! Hurry! The Maples will turn before we do... we are ALWAYS last to turn. I told you to watch the seasons, but noooooooo. You had to listen to your mother, the Oak."

I doubt the early settlers had a neighbor who swept up leaves in his gutter into a dustpan with a broom the way we do, dressed in his RayBan shirt and slacks, still... you never know.

The same hills, the early versions of these trees... the same heavy wet mist. Foghorns sounding... low, long over the water. It's fall.

Made me wish I had hot chocolate.... sadly, I didn't.

I made due with Turkey Farm Fudge Brownie Ice Cream, instead... it almost worked.

7 comments:

golfwidow said...

Try Ben and Jerry's Dublin Mudslide. It too, is not hot chocolate.

Peter Varvel said...

(LMAO! at Golfwidow's comment)

Mmmmmm, sounds cozy and romantic.

Uhhh, it's not good to buy watermelon at the supermarket, anymore, here in LA-la land, this time of year.
Does that count? (I say no)
You can tell it's fall, though, cuz pumpkins are being sold in the supermarkets.

Amber said...

I'm LMAO! @ Golf Widow's comment as well.

I just have to say that Autumn? Is BY FAR my favorite season.

Which is odd because it preludes my most hated season. That's only because winters are harsh in the Rockies and they last anywhere from 7 to 8 months I suppose.

In any case, what can beat the smell of burning leaves, sharpened #2 pencils, woodsmoke, and the glorious splendor of the world around us as it says "see ya in a few months. Remember me."

Rebel Yankee said...

oh, a hot chocolate. That is Fall and Winter to me.

quin browne said...

i, too, hate winter. both the rockies kind (30 years of that mess!) and the harsh wicked ones of new york, where the wind builds up as it whips around the false mountains of stone and glass and slaps you in the face.

i love fall and spring.

i'll try the ben and jerry's.

Anonymous said...

I love winter, but we don't really have them any more.

I remember winter as cold, crisp air. Air that you felt you could open an envelope with. Air that made your teeth zang when you breathed too deeply.

I remember snow. Not the hydrocarbon sludge we occasionaly get now, but snow that sounded like the irritating man behind you in the cinema, who insisted on munching crisps at the moments of tension.

I used to love autumn when it really was the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Now it's just the season of trees that look sick and damp that makes me realise I have joints.

But I DO have hot chocolate, bought for indifferent kids and now, suddenly, very attractive.

So thank you Jerry and Ben, but I will stick with Cadburys thank you, and remember that we may be a third-rate power in most ways, but boy, do we do chocolate.

quin browne said...

bastard!

you have the real cadbury's... now, go write more and remember me every time you buy one.

bastard.


wait, i said that out loud, didn't i?


fmd