The official start to fall occurred last week, but it was the sudden appearance of the first chilly weather of the season that reiterated the point for me this morning. Thunderstorms rolled through overnight, and the neatly manicured lawn I achieved yesterday afternoon in sunny 73-degree weather was replaced by a disheveled collection of brown leaves and loose branches after last night's strong winds.Almost overnight this area turned from summer to fall.
With the physical change in seasons will undoubtedly come a marked change in my perspective, and the first evidence of this was my lack of desire to pursue what regular site visitor Microdot recently called my "guerrilla gardening." I had intended to harvest some wild phlox, New England asters, and wild lilies from a vacant commercial lot in West Toledo (actually, it is more like an urban jungle, as it has been empty for a decade), but the cold winds and occasional smattering of rain caused me to reconsider. I thought a few hours of reading indoors with closed windows made more sense in the chilly early fall weather.
A few balmy days will still visit us, at least during October, but the time is upon us to think of cold nights, brown leaves, and warm cider.
