Autumn leaves

By J. Thomas Duffy

Happy Autumn!



We didn't need the calendar to know the season is changing, based on the cooler weather sweeping in (especially, at night), and having to slosh through fallen leaves and crunch the squirrels' discarded acorn shells as we walk down the street.

Wikipedia tell us that:

Autumn (also known as Fall in North American English) is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter, usually in late March (southern hemisphere) or late September (northern hemisphere) when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier.

n theory, astronomically, the equinoxes ought to be the middle of the respective seasons, but temperature lag (caused by the thermal latency of the ground and sea) means that seasons appear later than dates calculated from a purely astronomical perspective. The actual lag varies with region, so some cultures regard the autumnal equinox as "mid-autumn" whilst others treat it as the start of autumn (as shown in the above table).

Autumn starts on or around 15 September and ends on about 20 December in solar term.

And, of course, darkness comes much earlier (not quite as bad as Monty Python had it -- "I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed.")

You can also check things out with Equinox.

Or Joan Morris, at Mercury News, and her "Autumn bliss: 10 things we love about the fall."

So, as you tool around on this First Day of Autumn, here's a soundtrack to rustle some leaves with:

Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley - Autumn Leaves



For a little international flair:

Edith Piaf - Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mortes)

And two favorite artists we could listen to all day:

Eva Cassidy - Autumn Leaves

Barney Kessel - Autumn Leaves (1979)




(Cross-posted at The Garlic.)