I was driving home a week or so ago, and I noticed some Halloween decorations in a yard in the next street over from us. I smiled to see several happy Jack-o-Lanterns on the lawn. They were created by using decorative trash bags that some company makes so people can fill the bags with the leaves from their trees, and have a low-cost source of holiday happiness that they can easily get rid of by dumping the leaves into their compost or their green recycling bins (or maybe putting them in the actual trash, but let’s don’t go there). I drove around the block and looked at them again. And I wondered, “Where’d they get the leaves to fill up those bags?”
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- There are the jack-o-lantern trash bags, all festive and filled-up. With something. The yard *does* look swept of fall leaves, but that’s not because they raked up leaves. It’s because, as you can clearly see, all the leaves are green and still on the trees!
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- This is the Halloween-trash-bag block, from the side street. See. ALL the trees are still green.
Yes, they could have put actual trash in the bags. But, with temperatures still in the 90’s some days, is that really what you want in your front yard? For a month!
Maybe they used newspapers, which can also be recycled, on November 1. If they used wadded up papers, I’m not sure the bags would be heavy enough to stay put. But, if they used flat, unwadded papers, that’s quite a few newspapers. They must have been saving up for a while. Maybe they’ve saved the stuff they’re going to take to Goodwill, on November 1. And they bagged them up, all year, with the orange bags that they bought, from the clearance shelves on November 1, last year. (Now that I say it, that’s not a bad idea. Except I’m rather limited in extra space, and probably couldn’t wait all the way to November to take things on over to the Goodwill place.)
However they pulled it off, I enjoy seeing them as I drive by, and I appreciate their effort. Makes it feel more fall-ish.
I read an interesting article that gives a little bit different definition for the beginning of autumn.
One definition, the meteorological one, says fall begins on September 1st (so there can be 3 months per season). The celestial definition says fall begins on the autumnal equinox, around September 21.
“The third definition of the start of autumn, which is more fluid, ” says the article, “comes from phenology – the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events. The start of autumn in this field is dictated not by a set date or a single event, but the changes in the natural world, such as the tinting of the trees and the ripening of autumn fruits.”
So, from a phenological standpoint, here in Central Texas, fall is November and December. Winter is January and February. Spring is March, April, and May. And summer is June, July, August, September, and October. (Did I mention that we’re having 90 degree days this week? And the plants are either still nice and green, or dead and brown.)
“For some,” the article concludes, “the first blackberry, which can ripen in July, heralds autumn, while for others it has arrived when the trees are bare, which can occur in December.”
For me, here, it really seems like fall when we have to turn on the heater. And, while it doesn’t happen every year, or even often … but it’s not unusual and I am completely not lying about this … some years we will have the air conditioner running at the beginning of a week, and have to turn on the heater by the end of the week. True story.
God spoke: “Lights! Come out!
Shine in Heaven’s sky!
Separate Day from Night.
Mark seasons and days and years,
Lights in Heaven’s sky to give light to Earth.”
And there it was.
Genesis 1:14-15 (The Message)
Oh, we’ll get our autumn–the phenological way. When autumn is good and ready.
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- I’ve put impatiens in this grow-bag every spring for several years. They always die away in the heat of the summer. While they’re pretty leggy now, they’re not only alive, they’re *blooming* still! Super Impatiens!
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- The red oak’s leaves *are* actually changing. However, the fall leaves are usually red. This is just moisture stress, I think.
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- But wow. Look at all the acorns. Which should *thrill* the squirrels : ( If we could just keep the squirrels in the *front* yard, away from the pecans.
