Seems to me all the seasons are going faster, arriving and leaving earlier – except maybe last winter, which seemed to be nearly five months long.
In the ancient temperate zone calendar, when the Goddess was our image of the deity, the first day of fall was August 1.? Which works, when you think about it.? To get the entire season of fall, August 1 gives you the very barest beginning of falling leaves, which are all gone by November 1 – so you get to see the whole thing, from the initial hint to the maximum leaf color to the dreary and wet of leaves gone.
But now tons of leaves are already falling from my beautiful oaks – which have put out prodigious amounts of acorns, and each of the flowers over the summer started and finished much earlier.? Which was good, ’cause they didn’t suffer as much from the enormous heat.? The goldfinches are already not gold, but are fading.? The squirrels are absolutely frantic and fat, digging holes everywhere to hide those acorns.? Most migrators seem to have moved on.
I haven’t seen a deer lately, but I’m betting their grayish winter coats are coming in.? I know the chipmunks are a bit darker already.
I wonder how this will work out over the long haul.? I guess we have lots of time to observe and discern and muse on all this.