Flame red broccoli
against cerulean sky
tells me Winter soon…
My favourite Oak tree is starting to turn to Autumn, a sure sign that soon we will be hauling out the Sorels and snow shovels.
Ugh, I am NOT a Winter person, not one to wait with bated breath to wax down the boards and hit the slopes (been there, done that, burnt my hand on the fricking iron). Nope, I am your classic ‘Born on a temperate island now living on the edge of the tundra type’ not genetically inclined to walking on anything that would give me frostbite or shovel the walkway.
My preferred season is Autumn, when the leaves turn into a riot of colours, mornings are cool and crisp (5 – 8 degrees Celsius) and afternoons a glorious blue skied 15 – 18 degrees. Usually on The Island Autumn lasts from mid-September until the southeasters set up sometime near the latter days of November. Here in Ottawa on Tundra I swear there is an Autumn forecast – between 10am and 4pm on September 26th give or take a day or two.
At the end of August the leaves start to turn colour, producing another horde of tourists toting cameras and Timmy’s cups (the latter usually left sitting on the bridge next to the Laurier as they take pics of the locks!). By the first week of September mornings have dropped into the single digits and usually there is a blustery rain or two by dinnertime.
You would think after almost 20 years in Ontari-scario I would be used to this quick passage from Summer to the dead of Winter, but no, September gives me a weird type of nesting instinct to clean up my basement office and haul out / clean off my Dremel tool (I bought a new one this year – yaaay!) and other Winter hobby apparatus.
Climate change is starting to add its own wrinkle to Autumn. Last week we had lows of 6 – 8 and lots of rain. This week we are expecting lows of 15 and highs of 30! WTF Mama Nature?? I even checked the backyard to see if the snow shovel was still leaning against the fence (it was).
So it is back into my cargo shorts, polos and Crocs (ok, I ALWAYS wear Crocs) for another week, but I am ready for you Old Man Winter! My parka is handy in the front closet and the battery charger is plugged in ready.
And somewhere I can hear my Wet Coast friends reading this (you know who you are!!) and going ‘neener neener neener’ under their breath!
Happy Autumn!
Mark