Tuesday 4~ Autumnal Equinox

 Autumnal Equinox

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4... are you ready for Autumn?

Monday, September 22 is the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of the Autumn season.

Autumn is the name of the season and fall is the term for the time of Autumn when leaves begin to fall from the trees. Let's discuss it.....

1. Are there pumpkins or chrysanthemums on your porch or are you planning on putting some out?

Yes, there are lots of mums in my front yard. I hope I can keep them alive for a while. I usually wait until October to get a pumpkin. It's too hot in September and they would rot before Halloween! LOL.  I will probably put out my scarecrow in October also.

2. Are stores around you showing Autumn clothing and decor now? Here in New Jersey, leaves on some trees are changing slowly and temperatures are way down . What is it like in your neck of the woods?

Most of the autumn decor is already either gone, or is at 50% off, as the stores are making room for Christmas items now. I think it's sad that they get rid of the autumn stuff even before the first official day of Autumn!   Everything is too commercialized these days. 

Here's some autumn leaves on a tree trunk seen while out walking this morning.

And here's the way it looks on our current walking trail. Not much sign of Autumn yet here in north central Florida, and the temperatures get up to about 88 degrees.  Our mornings have been cooler, in the high 60's, low 70's, which is nice, but it is still rather humid and much too dry! We need rain right now very badly.

3. Do you have plans for Thanksgiving yet?

Not really. Just trying to get through September and October first. Most likely we will have Thanksgiving here at our house, although I keep hinting to my DIL and son that it would be SO nice to have it at THEIR house this year, now that they have a nice new refurbished kitchen!  We'll see what happens. They also have a lovely screened porch and nice shady backyard with a fire-pit. I just think it would be a perfect place for Thanksgiving here in Florida, where it is usually warm enough to eat outside.

4 . If we can arrange an autumn trip or get away for you, where will you choose to go and why>

We do plan to take a trip the middle of October, to the north Georgia mountain and stay in a cabin with our son and DIL for a few days. It should be beautiful at that time, and we hope to go get some apples and do some sight seeing in the mountains.  We have been doing this for several years now, and it is always a lovely getaway for all of us.  However, if we could do it, I would love to go all the way to Maine and see the leaves up there, but especially see our grandson and spend some time with him for his birthday like we used to when he was a little boy. Now he will be 26 in October. Hard for me to believe.  But it is a long trip and very expensive to stay up there, so I don't see us being able to do that anytime soon.  

I wrote THIS last year (click HERE) about the Autumn Equinox, with a funny story about how our grandson told me about the Autumn Equinox when he was just five years old. It's one of those precious little memories that always pops up in my mind when I think about the first day of Autumn.

Psalm 46:10-11

Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!

11 The Lord of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Have a blessed and joyous Autumn!!

Last Day of Summer~Autumnal Equinox

 I will never forget when we went to Maine to visit our then 5 year old grandson for his October birthday. He and his parents met us as the airport, and on the way home to their house I was making conversation with our very intelligent and quite verbose grandson.  I made a remark about how pretty all the fall leaves were, and Noah very quickly corrected me by saying, "Oh no, Grandma! It's the Autumnal Equinox, not fall!"  I probably said something like, "well pardon me!" LOL.  But then I said I'd never heard it called that before, and he told me that that is what it is in no uncertain terms.  Of course I was chuckling about how brilliant our grandson was, and wondering what to expect next.  He never did cease to amaze us with his vocabulary and keen intelligence about most everything.  Soon he will be 25 years old, and he still never ceases to amaze me, but we just don't get the opportunity to talk all that often anymore, and I do miss that very much. I may just have to try and call him this week.  But that's another subject...

Today I was looking for signs of the "autumnal equinox" around us as we took a little ride this morning to the Kenwood Boat Ramp.

This posters will tell you more about where we were.  And HERE is a link to our visit there last year, about this same time.

It's a beautiful place in all seasons, and it never fails to bless us when we take the time to ride down there. It's only a few miles from our home, so isn't hard to get to.  I did see some early signs of fall there:  These Sweet Gum tree leaves were like signs on a trail leading me somewhere!

And although the leaves are not really changing much yet in the trees, the reflections in the water were gorgeous, and well worth seeing...

Lots of pretty purple water hyacinth blooming still...

Those are mostly Cypress trees on the other side of the water, and they will turn kind of yellow gold before they lose their leaves...

All was calm and peaceful on the water today, even though there were probably 20 or more trucks with boat trailers parked in the parking lot, they were apparently all out there somewhere in the lake fishing since the crack of dawn.

Oh, look at this magnificent live oak tree, and I LOVE the way the sun is shining and making that palmetto glow in the shadows of the tree:

The water is very coppery looking, which is actually tannin in the water from the trees all around...

This is what I was really trying to capture on camera...this elusive Queen Butterfly, as she flitted from plant to plant all around me.  Finally she stayed still long enough to pose for a few pictures...

Isn't she beautiful???

Oops! There she goes, off in flight in search of another tasty plant!

I wish you could've seen me chasing after her, trying to keep up with her and not fall in the water in the process!  LOL.  I'm sure it was quite a sight to behold, but I was having a good time and was so thankful that my efforts were rewarded with these few photos!

We came back home and after lunch I went outside for a little while and sat on the swing, but it was getting pretty warm and after I took a little walk-about our property I came back inside to cool off. However, not before I saw this:   I wish the picture was better, because the spider was literally glowing with a bright orange spot in the sun. He was very small, but I am sure he knows how to take care of business. I left him alone to catch more bugs...there are plenty of them out there to catch!

I also noticed these Maple Leaves starting to turn color, so of course I took their picture:

Oh, and I've been meaning to show you these "puckery persimmons" that look like they are almost ripe now. This is over where we take our usual woods walk.  They are wild persimmons, and best left for the critters, although I understand some people make jelly out of them when they are really really ripe.  

I guess that about wraps it up for today.  Are you seeing any signs of the "Autumnal Equinox" where you live yet?  I'm sure many of our northern friends are seeing beautiful leaves by now. Please share them in your posts for those of us in the south who are Autumnal Equinox deprived. We are still waiting for some cooler temperatures...it is 87 degrees now as I write at 2:49 p.m., and it was a low of 71 this morning.  The humidity seems to be backing off a teensy tiny bit, but then again I hear there's a tropical storm possibly churning around out in the Gulf of Mexico, so we shall see what develops out of that next week. Praying it just dies and goes away. We could use some rain, but please, God, nothing more than that.  Thank You.

I will close with this "benediction" from God's Word:

Jude 1:24-25 NKJV

Glory to God

24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,

And to present you faultless

Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,

25 To God our Savior,

Who alone is wise,

Be glory and majesty,

Dominion and power,

Both now and forever.

Amen.