Autumn Begins

A rainstorm blew through the other night and took with it the last of summer.  Muggy, sticky evenings appear to have left for the year, and cool autumn nights are rolling in.  The past two days the sky was bright, deep, blue-- the blue of fall, not the faded blue of a summer sky.

For most people, I suppose, autumn signals the beginning of the end: trees begin to lose their leaves, cold air wipes out flowers, harvest is ended.  But to me autumn signals a strange rebirth: the world wakes up from the lazy, over-hot days of summer.  We shake off a kind of daze and begin to feel and to taste more richly and deeply.  Autumn means long walks in crisp air, a bounty of spiced, flavorful food, and bursts of intense color as the year enjoys its final hurrah.