Fall has arrived and, as if we needed any further reminder than the calendar, Mother Nature is doing her best to alert our eyes, ears, and nostrils to the fact that autumn is really here.
While I had the recent pleasure of traveling three hours south in the state, evidence of the changing seasons was everywhere. The fall crop fields were stunningly beautiful while flaunting varying shades of yellow, gold, and brown along with an occasional green-ribbon thread added in for visual effect. Half-harvested fields of corn exhibited their beauty in the contrast of corn stalks waiting to be cut next to the foot-or-so stubble remaining. Likewise, the wheat fields gently blew in the wind, patiently waiting their turn to be harvested. The beauty of the agricultural landscape was interspersed with farm equipment, either moving in the fields amidst dust clouds or lumbering down the two-lane highway, chugging along with dogged determination to the next crop. Somewhere in this agrarian portrait, a large wind farm added a silent, silver elegance to the picturesque acres that we passed by with their mechanical arms methodically moving as if in a mute, synchronized ballet. Pumpkin stands were bursting at the seams with future jack-o-lanterns in all shapes and sizes, bales of hay and straw begged for purchase and sunflower stalks were banded together for October displays. As if additional cues were needed, the requisite apple cider and its tasty cousin, the apple-cider doughnut were in full supply with no shortage of buyers! Football schedules can be seen posted on bulletin boards in every small-town business and football teams can be seen and heard practicing through their plays with crunching and constant collisions. Summer shorts and halter tops are being traded for denim and hoodies and storefronts remind us that Halloween is not far away. The nights are cool and the days have moderate temperatures, often accompanied by diurnal sunshine and the Harvest Moon at night.
Does it get any better than this?
I think not!
Ancora imparo
