Most of the year we slide from month to month with just gradual changes in the landscape. Spring to summer is anticlimactic in the South because it has been summer since the first of May here. And the first day of fall is just a date on the calendar in the Deep South. Even October is just a time when the transition from nature running at full capacity to getting ready to shut down is just starting. But let November get here and the change to autumn is unmistakable.
Fog shrouds the world some mornings. So quiet that you can hear a leaf drop. Water droplets make strings of pearls on spider's webs in the grass and in the trees.
And the trees, they have either taken on their autumn Technicolor hews or are becoming bald for winter already. Whereas in summer the trees are just the framing for the interesting subjects in the background, in November they snap to the front and become the center of attention.
It's November when the yard is covered alternate by rain showers followed by leaf showers.
In November is when you can wheel in off the highway and buy bushels of sweet potatoes in Vardaman at any number of drive-thrus.
It's November when signs of change in the trees are echoed by signs of change we elect to make.
Fall flowers show up best in November. Perhaps our wild flowers in November are even more prolific than the wild flowers in spring. Spring flowers are appreciated because they are the sign that winter is over, fall flowers even more so because we know that when they come along it's just before nature closes up shop for the colorless winter.
And in those years when we haven't yet had a killing frost, the hardiest of the summer flowers are still in bloom, too. It's a bonus we get only this time of year. But for a limited time only.
The bright cloudless days of November more and more are leading to increasingly colder nights. And soon, if not already, the downtown streets will not be decorated not so much with the autumn colors of November, but the bright lights of Christmas and the holidays.
How active and vibrant the world is now, masks a warning for us, to number our days. November is here, winter is on the way.
Copyright 2012 WLBT. All rights reserved.
WLBT 3 - Fox 40
