...and just like that, the fireflies are gone

Where did summer go?

What changes are you currently observing?

(admittedly, they've likely been gone for a few weeks - though I'm only now making the observation)

We were out foraging blackberries yesterday evening, and  I noticed the telltale "veining" of some of the maple leaves. You know, that look they get when the tree starts taking the chlorophyll back into the trunk for winter storage, and the leaves are still green but beginning to show yellow and orange "veins." In another month I'll start seeing bright pops of autumn color on the mountain that is out my window. I'm never quite ready to say goodbye to summer and sunshine, but then I find that I also love the PNW gloom once it arrives.

Jen Harrin wrote:We were out foraging blackberries yesterday evening, and  I noticed the telltale "veining" of some of the maple leaves. You know, that look they get when the tree starts taking the chlorophyll back into the trunk for winter storage, and the leaves are still green but beginning to show yellow and orange "veins." In another month I'll start seeing bright pops of autumn color on the mountain that is out my window. I'm never quite ready to say goodbye to summer and sunshine, but then I find that I also love the PNW gloom once it arrives.

Yes!  Blackberries are coming on strong and some of our apples are turning already while the pears are fattening up.

In the tree lines in the distance, often times you can see the stress of summer taking it's toll with trees yellowing just a bit.

(I used to wear amber transition lenses and could see the contrast even easier that way)

However, with all the rain we've received this summer here in NE Ohio - everything is still lush and green!

I know what you mean. Just in the last couple of days, our sunlight has changed. It's small, and no one else around me seems to notice it, but the sunlight changes from golden to more white looking and feeling. I can't really describe it, but I always notice it and looking back in my farm journal, it's always around the end of August that I start to see it. Coupled with cooler mornings with that hint of sharpness, and that means we are turning the corner to fall. We still have crickets galore and some warm afternoons, and I have a feeling it's going to get hotter again in September, but the initial corner has been rounded into fall. Here we go!

Cicadas singing and bumble-flying into everything.  They sing in the end of summer.  And spiders spinning huge webs across our walkways.

The stinkbugs are back.

Hi, yep, the sun goes down earlier, coolish mornings, geese beginning their migration practice, (they do haveta teach their young), the last of the flowers blooming, the sounds of getting ready for snow.....  

Arthur Angaran wrote:Hi, yep, the sun goes down earlier, coolish mornings, geese beginning their migration practice, (they do haveta teach their young), the last of the flowers blooming, the sounds of getting ready for snow.....  

big time...i've been wearing my hooded sweatshirt walking the dog in the mornings for weeks

fog and dew heavy in the grass

trees are beginning transition

autumn is upon us

Mk Neal wrote:Cicadas singing and bumble-flying into everything.  They sing in the end of summer.  And spiders spinning huge webs across our walkways.

Yes, was at a meeting the other night - outdoors as it was a nice night.

The quiet talkers were drowned out on account of them in the maples right next to us.