According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, the fall equinox of 2012 began today, September 22nd, at 10:49 am EDT. Aside from the implications care of astronomy (i.e., position of the Sun relative to the Earth and the ratio of day to night) I suppose I've always believed the date was approximate and that the time was trivial. Today I experienced the instantaneous of the seasonal change.
We took the canoe out today simply because it was a bright, warm and calm day. It is unlikely we will have many more of these this year and rather than postpone the opportunity, we loaded the gear and began to paddle around our favorite local pond. At 10 a.m. on a Saturday, nobody else was around. We spied a couple of herons, saw a couple dozen Canada geese flying in their crooked vees. Otherwise, it was a peaceful as ever with subtle hints of fall color.
At one bend, there was a puff of air and we were pelted by plant debris. Twigs pierced the water and a few leaves drifted into our collars. Sue noted the time as being 10:49 am. We had paddled all the way from summer 2012 right into fall 2012. The burst of leaves came our way as if they had appointments. After an hour of so of paddling, we made our way home, noticing an occasional maple that was exhibiting more orange than the surrounding green trees. Estimates are that our local colors will peak near the end of October. No complaints from me because gently easing into winter is one of the best journeys I know.
