Autumn Begins Friday afternoon, September 22nd!

Happy Autumn!
Friday, September 22, 2017

Art mosaic glass by Singapore artist Anjali Venkat

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, Autumn greets us (or we greet Autumn) tomorrow, September 22, 2017, at 3:02 p.m. Central Daylight Time.
 That's 4:02 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and 1:02 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.  

September 2017 has been cool and pleasant but very dry.. except for the last week, in which temperatures here in the Midwest again hit the 90's!  (I thought we were done with the air conditioning.)  Today was particularly hot and muggy, much more like early September than late September, so I'm looking forward to the cool evenings of October.    

Just in case you can't quite remember the science of the Autumnal Equinox, which is the time when the sun appears to cross the equator and the days and night are of equal length, here's a primer from Wikipedia:

The September equinox (or Southward equinox) is the moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading southward. Due to differences between the calendar year and the tropical year, the September equinox can occur at any time from the 21st to the 24th day of September. 

At the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. Before the Southward equinox, the sun rises and sets more and more to the north, and afterwards, it rises and sets more and more to the south. In the Northern Hemisphere the September equinox is known as the autumnal equinox. In the Southern Hemisphere it is known as the vernal or spring equinox.

And just in case you forgot that the tilt of the Earth is responsible for the seasons, here's a good link that explains that whole thing.

So.. what do we have to look forward to this Autumn?  I'm copying my Autumn primer from an earlier post, as Autumn is always my favorite season.

September

To me, autumn has always meant the start of school (even though so many kids start school in summer now), tomatoes and zinnias in early September, the last barbecues of summer, many, many birthdays in our family, then, by the end of the month, cooler nights, leaves starting to change colors, chrysanthemums and asters (Michaelmas daisies), and a few more family birthdays.  And overflowing Farmer's Markets.  And football.

October

October is full of beauty, golden and red colors, gourds, squashes, especially pumpkins, haystacks and hayrides, and the last apples straight from the orchards. Then witches, ghosts, goblins and Halloween.

November

November brings Thanksgiving in the United States and the start of the Christmas holiday season.  As a kid, November always seemed just cold and grey, but now that I'm older, I really appreciate the peaceful quality of November.  The gardening is done; the craziness of the Christmas season hasn't yet started, and those empty branches against the deep blue of an early sunset are always stunning.

Apple Cobbler, Soups, Stews, and Meatloaf

I absolutely refuse to turn on the oven when the air conditioning is running, so Autumn means baking, casseroles, breads, soups and stews.  I always promise myself that I will try more new recipes than I actually do, but I'm definitely going to make that wonderful apple cobbler with home-whipped whipped cream that I made almost every year when my son was little.. if I can find the recipe.  And there will definitely be meatloaves and lasagna.  Definitely! 

For your autumn reading pleasure...

In addition to the Wikipedia article referenced above, check out the Old Farmer's Almanac website with a long article on autumn.

Five facts about autumn that you may not know thanks to CNN.  

 Tomorrow is the first day of fall, but it won't feel like it for most of us in the US!