- Kathleen Scavone
- Posted On
The Living Landscape: Alluring autumn
mirror-like stillness of the
clear creek-
concentric circles delicately disturb
the surface'
– Kathleen Scavone
'Autumn wins you best by this- its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.’
– Robert Browning
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The fall season is upon us once again, bringing solace and perspective.
Our autumnal equinox of Sept. 22 and the ensuing change of season have a certain feel to it.
At summer's end a particular slant to the light and a discerning scent on the wind reminds you that, yes, summer's long and languorous days are behind us, and the cooler clime is the new norm.
Cooler weather brings to mind comfy sweaters, cocoa and fall cleanup chores such as tidying up the garden.
Now is the time for scouting out the last of the local farmer's markets and finding fat melons, the last of the blackberries and a vibrant pumpkin patch.
The clowns of the woods, squirrel and woodpecker, dash and scuttle about the newly fallen acorns. Here come cooler days- and soon, a descent into darkness.
Autumn's etymology, or word-origins makes it way from old Etruscan roots, “autu” meaning “the passing year.” Next, the Romans turned the word into “autumnus,” giving us our “autumn.”
As fall transitions from the summer season, a kaleidoscope of color presents itself.
The hills light up with signature scarlet, burgundy and a pop of yellow- the original “eye candy.”
Take a walk and treat all of your senses. A heady and spicy tang of rot and decay that signifies the fall cycle is emitted now.
Nature's spent foliage drifts down like perfect poetry in action, while summer's lush undergrowth gives way.
At the creek a leaf is a delicate rowboat making its way downstream. It dips and nods on riffles before it is carried away.
Nature never takes a day off – even when it looks like she's done and there is not a leaf on a tree, she is not sleeping.
Instead, the seeds she has dropped are being consumed by birds and mammals – spreading the wealth for a later date. Down below her surface mycelium is colonizing and spreading out like underground webs.
The scientific reasons for fall's color palette involves an intricate choreography of weather, carotenoids and chlorophyll.
The warmth of fall's days and their brisk evenings create a domino effect of activity within the leaves.
Sugars which are made at daylight and then trapped in leaf veins and not permitted to move out, and cause the purples and reds that we love. These are known as anthocyanin pigments.
Also contained in leaves are carotenoids which create the showy golden yellows which we have come to enjoy so much.
There is so much to enjoy about alluring autumn!
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also formerly wrote for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.